Episcopal priest Rev. David Stout, Sacred Hearts Sister Vandana Narayan, (holding St. Damien relic), Sacred Hearts Sister Helene Wood, Father Stephen Macedo at St. James Episcopal Church, Waimea. (Photo courtesy of Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP)
By Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
“There are not too many parishes that can claim to have had an actual saint as its pastor,” quipped Father Stephen Macedo, pastor of Annunciation Parish in Waimea, as he pointed to the traveling relic of St. Damien de Veuster placed before the congregation.
According to Father Macedo, Father Damien built the first Catholic wooden church in Waiaka (near where Hawaii Preparatory Academy is now) in 1868. One-hundred-and-forty-eight years later, the saint was again making his rounds visiting the faithful, moving them to remember and imitate the merciful works of the Lord.
In May 2016, Father Macedo invited Sacred Hearts Sisters Helene Wood and Vandana Narayan to accompany the relic on the Big Island across Kohala and down the Hamakua Coast and to share stories about the mercy of Damien during the Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis.
A foretaste of the saint’s life of mercy was demonstrated when he volunteered to go to the Sandwich Islands in the place of his brother Father Pamphile de Veuster who had fallen ill. For his second assignment in the Islands, in imitation of God’s mercy, he offered to take over the rugged mission of Kohala and Hamakua from the less-athletic Sacred Hearts Father Clemens Evard.
Father Damien’s ultimate sacrifice came when his religious superiors granted him permission to remain on Molokai with the outcasts afflicted with Hansen’s disease “as long as your devotion requests of you.”
“It was through Damien’s burying of the dead that he not only fulfilled the corporal works of mercy, but also brought dignity to the forsaken,” said Sister Helene in her presentation.
Up to that point, Kalaupapa’s dead were usually forgotten, Sister Helene said, but by washing their bodies, preparing their graves and sending them off with music and ceremony, their lives were commemorated as being important, both on earth and to the Kingdom of God.
Sister Vandana explained how St. Damien inspired her religious vocation and how he continues to work through the Sacred Hearts Fathers and Sisters, in India especially.
“Through the Damien Social Development Institute founded by the Sacred Hearts, leprosy patients and other socially disabled persons have been provided with healthcare, rehabilitation, education and job opportunities,” she said. “We now have patients able to feed and sustain themselves and their families through trades such as weaving towels for the hospitals.”
Ecumenical connection
St. Damien lived the corporal works of mercy; he exuded the spiritual works of mercy in his relations with everyone, regardless of age, gender, creed or class. In like spirit, Father Macedo shares a similar relationship, not only with his congregation and brother priests on the Big Island, but with St. James Episcopal Church next door.
“Father David, thank you for your gift! But Easter has passed,” said the Annunciation’s pastor referring to the newly laid egg he found in the back of his pickup truck.
The two congregations share free-range chickens and a common stewardship for the Waimea community through a shared food pantry and ecumenical celebrations like Good Friday’s Way of the Cross during which each church led seven stations.
The “Prayer from the Great Thanksgiving,” used at St. James Church, expresses the common aspirations of the two communities: “In the fullness of time bring us, with blessed James, Columba, our patroness King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, Father Damien and Mother Marianne of Molokai, the ever-blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints from every tribe and language and people and nation, to the feast at the banquet prepared from the foundation of the world.”
