I have just watched the DVD “Molokai - the story of Father Damien” on my computer and it is certainly a very moving and humbling experience. Have you ever seen the movie, or read of Father Damien? This is a true story about a young Belgian Roman Catholic priest who, in the late nineteenth century, saw his calling as living among the exiled lepers of the island of Molokai. His dedication to caring for others was wholehearted and unstinting, a story of unfaltering faith, obedience and sacrifice. Without wishing to create some kind of ranking scale here, I do think I will have to put him alongside Mother Theresa as one of those most inspiring Christians who lived according to their beliefs in ways that show the rest of us how well short of the mark we fall just coping with ordinary everyday matters.

Father Damien, before he set foot on the island of Molokai, was warned by his superiors absolutely NOT to touch the lepers. His superiors would seem to have his best interests at heart as touching would put Father Damien at risk of catching leprosy himself. From a worldly point of view, that would have been good advice at the time with someone’s best interests at heart. But from a spiritual point of view, this assessment becomes somewhat debatable.

Father Damien chose straight away to forgo the advice and put his life in the hands of God. When warned again by one of the outcast lepers, he replied that he trusted God to take care of those matters for him. And if you were watching the movie and listening to Father Damien’s response, you would have heard the rest of his words - for as long as He needed him to do His Will.

Father Damien reached out to the lepers and was not afraid to touch, holding them in his arms when they needed comfort, and showing the love of God without holding back from them. Could he have loved them quite the same if he was too scared to touch? My view is that it would have been more of an intellectual act, nothing quite as complete as the love which God asks us to give to others. More about this shortly. So did God protect him? From a worldly point of view, it would seem not. Father Damien became a leper himself and died from the disease. But the issue was not that God would keep him from getting leprosy, but would take care of those matters until he had completed what was God’s Will for him. During his time on Molokai, much was accomplished. From a spiritual point of view, God did indeed do so.

Were Father Damien’s superiors right to have advised him as they did? Had he followed their advice he may have saved himself from leprosy. I would say that they were right to have appraised him fully of the facts concerning leprosy, but clearly Father Damien knew whose disciple he was - and that he had another path to follow. Advice is one thing but to my mind, his superiors could not with spiritual legitimacy make the command - to touch or not to touch - either way. Christ may command of those who would be His disciples, but some decisions are just not for others to be making for us.

John 15: 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

All this must seem like sheer madness to those who know it would be a death penalty to behave in such a way. To touch a leper’s wounds when there was no known cure had to be the most incredible foolishness. It was surely asking for one’s life to be cut short by a most hideous death. No wonder those who are devout in such a way are often seen as crazies - so silly to believe such nonsense, that God might give them protection, that God indeed wants more people to die besides those already dying. But there is a matter of perspective here, and this is a spiritual one where life is far more than what is known to exist on this planet in this earthly time - and such a love that is willingly generous, obedient and sacrificial yet warm and feeling, is something way beyond that which humans can normally generate and sustain themselves.

1 Corinthians 2 :14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

In order to counter the idea that love is just the warm feelings one may have for another but without the substance of loving deeds, there is another view commonly held these days that love is the loving deeds themselves, ones which may not necessarily come hand-in-hand with any congruent feelings. However, neither is the complete expression of love. Either one without the other is deficient.

An act of love must have the right motives, and from it comes the right feelings as well as being the right deeds. To give of oneself begrudgingly, with resentment or irritation, is not what is asked of us at all. The deed is marred by the attitude, motive and feeling behind it. What is asked of us is not merely the perfunctory performance of some duty, but the act of love where the deed is an outflowing from the joy of giving, the concern and true caring that matches the deed to the need.

Matthew 22: 37 Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

It was this complete expression of love that Father Damien showed to the people afflicted with leprosy on the island of Molokai. He gave his whole self, body and soul, in the expression of a love that fully matched the deed to the need. What is foolishness to some is recognized and understood by his brothers and sisters in Christ. If only we all might live such a life, dealing with those daily things that others ask of us - not even life-threatening like the risk of leprosy - by choosing to give unstintingly with generosity and joy, without irritation and resentment.