E hiki mai kou aupuni
By far one of the most uplifting and formative experiences of the “Baby Bishops School” that I attended in Rome in early September was the Sunday pilgrimage to Assisi that our group of fledgling bishops made to celebrate the Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis and to pray at the Poverello’s tomb.
The pilgrimage was a wonderful way to participate in the Jubilee marking the 800th anniversary of the “transitus” (death) of St. Francis and to lift up prayers that our society and world today may experience the peace that he so graciously embodied and imparted in his time. (The Jubilee runs until Jan. 10, 2027.)
Our entire journey to and from Assisi that day was imbued with St. Francis’ spirit and love. Indeed, it cannot have been a mere coincidence that our group bonded and formed friendships at a deeper level on the pilgrimage to Assisi than we had in all the preceding days of the program.
On the pilgrimage, I wore for my pectoral cross a Cross of San Damiano that I had received shortly before my episcopal ordination. I have always loved the Cross of San Damiano, but never before had I noticed on it the serenity on Jesus’ face as he undergoes crucifixion. I reflected that the cross before which St. Francis had first heard the call from Jesus to repair his church also must have inspired him as he breathed his last on Oct. 3, 1226, peacefully exclaiming “Welcome, Sister Death.”
The peace with which St. Francis met death flowed from the inspiration with which he had famously told Brother Leo, “Perfect joy lies only in the cross.” St. Francis had explained to Brother Leo that if we think of and willingly accept for ourselves the sufferings of Christ out of love for him — there we will find perfect joy.
It is not surprising, then, that, in 1883, when a “spiritual daughter” of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Marianne Cope, then superior general of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Syracuse, received a plea to work in the Hawaiian islands, mainly with leprosy patients — a plea that 50 other religious congregations had declined on account of the sacrifice and suffering that the mission would demand — and when, four years later, she received a further appeal to establish a new home for women and girls in Kalaupapa on Molokai, St. Marianne replied, “We will cheerfully accept the work.”
The compassion and empathy that had dwelt in the soul of St. Francis, sending him forth to care with joy for the sick in whom he found Christ’s presence, likewise dwelt within St. Marianne and made of her a cheerful giver to the sick and suffering to whom she was sent.
Beloved brothers and sisters, it should not escape us that these Franciscan virtues of empathy and compassion are entailed in the cultural and spiritual concept of aloha.
Although aloha is a profound and unifying sentiment that has no precise English equivalent, the first Hawaiian-English dictionary distilled it into the values of “love, affection, gratitude, kindness, pity and compassion.” And that the two canonized saints of our diocese, St. Damien of Molokai and St. Marianne Cope, were holy instruments in Christ of this very value of aloha, which so distinctly characterizes Hawaiian life and culture, should give us all long and meditative pause.
Nor should the providential coincidence of the two jubilees that we are celebrating escape us. For, since in the Bible every 50 years is designated a jubilee, i.e. “a year of favor to the Lord” that is to be observed by extraordinary acts of mercy, compassion and forgiveness, it follows that the 200th anniversary of Catholicism in Hawaii, in which we pray as a diocese “to St. Damien of Molokai and St. Marianne Cope to lead us ever closer to Jesus Christ,” is (by biblical measure) a fourth jubilee (4 x 50), while the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis is a fourth jubilee squared (4 x 4 x 50).
And so, throughout the remainder of this holy year, let us continue to pray through the intercession of our magnificent saints of Christian love, St. Damien of Molokai, St. Marianne Cope and St. Francis of Assisi, that we may follow their example; that we, too, may draw deeply on the aloha God has placed in our hearts and, willingly accepting the weight of the cross, cheerfully bear the love of Christ to all!
Devotedly in Christ,
Bishop Michael