​At Easter Vigil I invited you to search for the signs of the Risen Lord. This is very much a Christian attitude. Since the very first Easter Sunday the Lord Jesus isn’t confined to a tomb.  By a tomb I mean not only the cave hewn in the rock in Jerusalem but all sorts of things like theories, philosophies, challenges, difficulties, doubts created or experienced by individual and societies which suggest that the man called Jesus is just a person from the past.
            Sisters and Brothers! Eastertide which we are enjoying right now is the time of grace. This is the time of grace because, as we listen to the Scripture readings during these sacred 50 days of Easter, we discover that at the beginning of what is now called the Catholic Church was not a committee of some activists who wanted to change the world. At the beginning of our Church is Jesus Christ who was crucified, buried and who rose from the dead.
            The Gospel we have just received takes us again to the Upper Room on the very first Easter Sunday. Someone could say: Why can’t we just move on? The Easter Sunday was two weeks ago. Why we need to dwell on that still? We do dwell on that and we will dwell on that because the Resurrection of Jesus is the sign that new time has begun in the world. That’s why we follow the Risen Jesus who is alive and active. That’s what the disciples who returned from Emmaus discovered when they were running away on Easter Sunday. Jesus was walking with them when they thought that he was finished. In the Gospel today we hear them fully alive because they met the Risen Lord. We can also see how the rest of their group in Jerusalem is coming back to life. They have something in common now, the Risen Lord is in their midst.
            That’s why in the Bible we have the Acts of the Apostles. This Book is read in our churches every day during the Eastertide because it explains how and why the Church came into existence. The Church was established because the Risen Jesus showed himself to the disciples. The Church was established so that it could perpetuate the community in which succeeding generations can meet the Risen Lord as well.
            If you are still searching for a sign of the Risen Lord, if you think that maybe your eyesight is failing you because you haven’t discovered any signs, I tell you this: He is here in our midst!!!! Alleluia!!! When the Scriptures are proclaimed and explained it is the Lord himself who speaks and explains the mysteries of God and human to us like he did to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus.
            When bread and wine are placed on the altar Jesus himself becomes present in his Body and Blood to be consumed by us with faith and love so that we could be united with him when so many things in us and around us attempt to separate us from him.
            At the end of this Mass we will hear the words: ‘God forth, the Mass is ended.’ These words are not like the school bell letting students know that they can go home now. Theses final words of the Mass remind us of what the Risen Lord said to his disciples in the Gospel today: ‘You are witnesses to this.’ You who are hearing these words are witnesses to the Risen Lord because you are coming out of miracle. You are coming out of the Church where you heard the Risen Jesus talking to his disciples. You are coming out of the Church where Christ came right into the depth of your soul when you received his Body.
            My Dear Fellow believers in the Risen Christ. I pray so that each one of us here could always say after attending Mass: I have just been to the feast prepared by my Risen Lord. He opened the Scriptures for us. He opened our minds too to understand Scriptures. He has made our hearts burn with love.
            Jesus is not in the tomb. He is where his disciples are gathered in his name. We have gathered here in his name. We will again gather in his name because we are the people who dwell on the Easter Sunday. Happy Easter.

​            A couple of days ago there was an article in the paper investigating who was responsible for the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981. On this Divine Mercy Sunday I want to ask a different question: Who was responsible for inspiring the Pope to visit in the prison and forgive the man who tried to kill him?
            Sisters and Brothers!
            As we gather in this sacred place, by God’s grace we are given access to what happened in the Cenacle, on the Easter Sunday and the following Sunday two thousand years ago.  We find there a group of frightened, disappointed and confused women and men. For them Jesus came and said: ‘Peace be with you.’ Jesus who rose from the dead brought them peace because first he brought them reconciliation from God, God’s mercy.
            After gifting them with peace anchored in Divine Mercy he said: ‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ Where did he send them? To the people who needed forgiveness too. He commissioned them saying: ‘For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’ The mission which the disciples gathered in the Cenacle received, the mission which the disciples of all times, including us here gathered, have received, is giving to others the mercy we have received from the Lord.
            A week later, when St Thomas joined the disciples, we discover that the disciples did the mission of forgiveness because they didn’t kick Thomas out for doubting their testimony. They embraced with mercy their struggling brother. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus breathed into their souls, gave them the grace to forgive as they were forgiven.
            The same Holy Spirit didn’t depart after that First Divine Mercy Sunday. The Acts of the Apostles for this our Divine Mercy Sunday show us the believers in Jerusalem who were ‘united, heart and soul.’ For a group of people to be united like that it means that forgiveness was practiced there a lot. Those believers were the people of whom Jesus spoke to Thomas: ‘Happy are those who have not seen yet believed.’ Those believers from the First Reading didn’t see Jesus but they believed him. They lived by that belief. They forgave each other.
            We haven’t seen Jesus either but we are here because we believe. We believe that when we gather in his name he is in our midst. He is here as our Saviour. He breathes upon us the Holy Spirit so that we could have peace in us and be able to forgive those who trespass against us. In a few moments the priest will invoke the Holy Spirit to descend and change the bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood. It does make us feel so close to the Lord, doesn’t it? However if there is still in us resentment and anger towards some people, even if we receive his Body and Blood, we are as far from Jesus as hell is from heaven.
            When I see photos of John Paul II visiting his assassin I see a modern depiction of what happen on the First Divine Mercy Sunday two thousand years ago. I see a believer embracing someone who wronged him. However my faith allows me to see more. I also see the Risen Lord standing there, the Lord who breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples so that they could forgive. The same Risen Lord I can see there because without the Risen Lord breathing the Holy Spirit people are vengeful as we can see it in our society so often.
            I pray that the Holy Spirit, who will be soon invoked over the gifts of bread and wine, will come to each one of us to be united, heart and soul, because we all have been forgiven and we all are called to forgive. So in the name of our Blessed Lord I say to you:
‘Peace be with you… As the Father sent me, so I am sending you. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven… Do this in memory of me.’

​            A few weeks ago I gave my students a task to prepare a homily for the fourth Sunday of Lent which is also known as the Sunday of Joy, when priests wear rose or pink vestments. What I learnt from listening to their homilies was that the colour is actually rose not pink. Do you know why? Because Jesus rose from the dead he didn’t pink from the dead.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! We are here tonight becomes Jesus truly rose from the dead.
His Resurrection fascinates us.
His Resurrection sustains us.
His Resurrection is the reason why we are Christians.
            I was not surprised at the connection my students made between the rose colour and the Resurrection. Since that first Sunday morning when Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James and Solome discovered that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb Christians have been on the lookout, not for chocolate eggs but for the signs of Jesus’ Resurrection.
            They have learnt that from today’s Gospel which is like a tutorial. The young man in a white robe was the tutor. The three women were the students. They learnt that the Risen Lord was to be found in Galilee, in that prosaic and ordinary place. The generations of Christians have attended this tutorial too. As they prayed and reflected on the Resurrection Gospel they have learnt that their ordinary and prosaic lives and places were filled with the signs that the Lord rose from the dead.
            That belief that the Risen Lord is in our everyday life has guided the Church in recognising women and men as blesseds and saints. If it weren’t for the Risen Lord how you could explain Maximillian Kolbe offering his life to save a fellow prisoner in the concentration camp? If it weren’t for the Risen Lord how you could explain Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Mother Mary of the Cross Mackillop devoting their lives to the poorest of the poor? In those women and men of our Church we see the signs of the Resurrection.
            However the Church wants us, gathered here to celebrate the Easter Vigil, to look into our own lives now. We may feel that we are far from the holiness of our saints. The message of today is this: You are closer than you may think. St Paul reminded the Christians in Rome and us that: ‘When you were baptised in Christ Jesus you were baptised in his death.’ Our Baptism drew us to the tomb of Jesus. What did we find there? We found ‘a new life’ because our Baptism has united us with the Risen Lord.
            At times it is not easy to treasure this belief. Therefore the Church, who at every Mass says to us: ‘Lift up your hearts!’ invites us today to renew our Baptismal promises. It is truly consoling and uplifting moment to say that in the midst of everything that is happening in my life I choose to be by Jesus’ side. I believe him. I do.
            When you take the Holy Water from this Vigil to your home, bless yourself and your place to remind yourself that in you and in your home there are signs of the Lord who rose from the dead.
            When you take a candle to your home light it there and walk around your place praying so that the light of faith may help you to see the signs of the Lord who rose from the dead.
            From now on I will always think of the Risen Lord when I see the rose colour.
            From now on I will always think of the Risen Lord when I see a rose blooming too, a reminder that the Lord who rose from the dead leads me to my resurrection, when I will too bloom like a rose, because he rose from the dead.
            The world is full of the Resurrection signs. Be on the lookout. Happy Easter!

​            How can we look forward to Easter if there are so many people who are suffering and dying from COVID-19? How can we look forward to Easter if there are so many in NSW and Queensland who are suffering from the recent floods?
            Sisters and Brothers! Thanks to some of our parishioners we have today both: crosses made of palms and branches of palms. We are holding the Passion Sunday in one hand and the Palm Sunday in the other. The crosses focus on suffering while the branches of palms announce the victory. Should we choose one and drop the other? At the time of human family’s suffering more than ever we need to hold up both: the crosses and the branches.
            Hold the crosses up because we mustn’t turn a blind eye on the suffering of our sisters and brothers. These crosses in our hands unite us with those who are suffering at this time. Theses crosses in our hands also unite us with Jesus Crucified. “He was humbler yet, even to accepting death on a cross.”
            Hold the branches of palms up too because “God raised Jesus on high and gave him the name which is above all other names.”
            In our hands now we have the whole mystery of Christ: his Death and his Resurrection. In our hands now we have the whole of our human mystery too, the mystery which includes both the present suffering and the Resurrection to come. This is what God has promised us. This is what God accomplished during that first Holy Week two thousand years ago. This is what God wants to accomplish in us and all people, in our own common hour of need and suffering, therefore he gives us this Holy Week 2021.
            In a short while when the Body and Blood of Christ will be present on this altar we will say: ‘We proclaim your death, O Lord and profess your Resurrection until you come again.” This year, more than ever, we see Jesus suffering in his and ours sisters and brothers. This is what we proclaim. This year, more than ever, we need to believe in his Resurrection in his and ours sisters and brothers. This is what we profess.
            How can we look forward to Easter this year? We can and we must because the vaccine or insurance payment will not heal the wounds people carry in their souls. But the Lord Jesus who refused to come down from the cross so that the Salvation could be accomplished will come to us as the Risen Lord to raise us all up. So don’t be shy to celebrate the Holy Week and Easter. The suffering world needs it. Amen.

​There was an ambitious young man who wanted to become a famous soldier. His name was Ignatius. In a battle he got seriously injured. It put an end to his army career plans. Something similar happens also to many of us, if not to all of us. We dream about things we want achieve. We make an effort to progress. But our plan can get shattered. Is it a tragedy or the time of grace?
            Sisters and Brothers!
            At the beginning of the second part of Lent which is called the Passiontide we listen to the Lord Jesus who declares: ‘Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’ You may remember the conversation Jesus had with his mother Mary at the wedding in Cana when upon her request to save the wedding reception at which wine run out, he said: ‘My hour has not come yet.’ In the Gospel for this Sunday our Blessed Lord speaks with determination and commitment that ‘his hour has come.’ What is this hour? If we said 60 minutes, would we exhaust its mystery?  If we went deeper and said 3600 seconds would we really get deeper? Or should we say that even the best clock cannot tell us the hour of Jesus?
            Therefore we turn to the Son of God to enlighten us. Jesus then asks us to pay attention to those Greeks from today’s Gospel who said to the Apostle Philip: ‘We should like to see Jesus.’ Can you see and hear what is happening here? God has worked in those Greeks and gave them a desire to see Jesus. This is what Jesus said before: ‘No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me.’ In today’s Gospel we can see and hear that God the Father did that. God the Father drew those Greeks to Jesus. The hour of Jesus began. Now the passing time is measured not just by clocks and calendars but by the working of God in people’s lives.
            When Ignatius, the soldier I spoke about before, was recovering he came across some books about Jesus and Saints. In his hour of disappointment, pain and confusion God came to him and drew him to Jesus like God drew those Greeks from the Gospel to Jesus. Ignatius didn’t become a famous soldier he dreamed about. God however gave him grace to become a Saint. We invoke him now as St Ignatius Loyola. When he was drawn to Jesus God did to Ignatius what was announced through Prophet Jeremiah: ‘Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts.’ God who first wrote the Ten Commandments on the two stone tablets now is doing it on our hearts and souls by giving us his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead for us and for our salvation.
            This is what we celebrate here at every Mass. We wouldn’t have bread for Mass if it weren’t for some grains which fell into the soil and while dying produced new grains which became flour to make bread. It reminds us of the mystery of Christ. We wouldn’t have Holy Communion if it weren’t for Jesus who ‘was lifted up from the earth’ at his crucifixion. Then and there he was like the grain dying to give new life to us. When we touch the Holy Communion we touch the life which came from the death of some grains but we also touch the life which came from the death of Jesus Christ. What a great mystery to treasure and enjoy!
            To finish this homily I call you to believe that when you think about various situations in your life, whether they are a happy hour or a sad hour, you can say that they are Jesus’ hour. They are the time when God works on you like he did work on the Greeks from the Gospel and like he did work on St Ignatius Loyola. Therefore it is not a tragedy. It is the time of grace.

​

​Last Thursday euthanasia laws passed the Lower House in Tasmania. The island state is just about to join Victoria and Western Australia where similar laws already exist. As some people have celebrated this step we, the disciples of Jesus gathering today to celebrate the sacred mysteries of Salvation, receive into this difficult life situation the Decalogue. We haven’t orchestrated it. This Sacred Word of God comes to us on this Third Sunday of Lent.
            Dear Sisters and Brothers! Last Sunday we witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus. With Peter, John and James we were given a glimpse of Jesus’ glory. This Sunday the Word of God takes us to another mountain, the Mount of Sinai. When we read the preceding verses of the Book of Exodus we discover that ‘there were peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, dense cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast.’ Into that cloud God called Moses. During that glorious time God revealed to Moses the Ten Words, which we call the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments. Why did God reveal to Moses the Ten Commandments? It was so that people could be transformed into a new creation. God who uttered the Ten Commandments also revealed: ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’ The glory of God was not limited to those extraordinary events on the summit of the Mount of Sinai but God’s glory shone in the power of God’s hand which led the people into freedom of God’s children. The freedom of the People of God was not accidental but the result of God’s involvement into their miserable situation.
            Today I ask you my fellow Christians to turn to the same all powerful and all loving God who brought his people out of the house of slavery. Let us ask him so that we could have the Ten Commandments deeply engraved in our hearts, minds and will. In the midst of our society, which plunges into slavery of that ancient desire to be like God, to decide on its own what is good and what is evil, we need the power of God’s grace to shine the faith and trust in God’s Commandments which are ‘perfect’ and ‘revive the soul.’
            When we observe these new laws introduced to our society it looks like watching a building where cracks appear and a collapse is imminent. However the words of our Blessed Lord addressed to the leaders of his time come alive in our own time too: ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The words were fulfilled on those saving days of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. The decisions and laws which fracture and destroy our society will not be the last words. The last word belongs to God who from the ruins can and will bring new life which began when Jesus was raised.
            Let us continue celebrating this Eucharist and let us bring into it all the brokenness of our world. This altar will become our Mount of Sinai. The Lord Jesus will reveal himself in our midst under the species of bread and wine. This Body of Christ will be broken when we sing ‘Lamb of God.’ This Body of Christ will be broken in our midst for the healing of our broken world. This sign reveals that the Resurrection cannot be stopped, that the new life is emerging where death seems to be triumphing. As people we have destroyed a lot of sacredness in our world but the Lord Jesus still assures us: ‘in three days I will raise it up.’
            When some people are now drinking champagne to celebrate the passing of the euthanasia laws we, followers of Jesus Christ, like those Israelites who had had the first taste of freedom after being freed from Egyptian slavery, listen to God announcing the Ten Commandments in our own time right now. These Commandments are our taste of freedom and new life. So let us kneel and with deep faith and gratitude let us receive the Fifth Commandment which has been rejected by Tasmanian lawmakers: ‘You shall not kill.’

​There are some pictures of a young man climbing a mountain. He radiates with joy. He looks full of wonder and awe like the Apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration. Although that young man didn’t see the glory of the Lord Jesus like the three Apostles did he believed that the stunning views from the summit of the mountain were revealing something about the glory of God. The name of the man was Pier Giorgio Frassati, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian man who lived at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
            Dear Sisters and Brothers! During moments like the one from the Gospel or from the life of Blessed Pier Gorgio we can grasp the closeness of God, can’t we? The voice of the Father declaring: ‘This is my Son, the Beloved’ is heard for the second time. How reassuring it sounds, doesn’t it? A few weeks ago when we observed the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord the same voice was heard saying: ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’ Who Jesus is? He is the Son of God and his second name is the Beloved. However the voice of the Father won’t be heard again in the Gospel. The next mountain where we will see Jesus will be the Mount of Calvary. There we will hear Jesus’ cry: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ It is not about Jesus losing his faith in his Father. If Jesus stayed on the cross it was because he knew that in the union with his Father and the Holy Spirit he was accomplishing our salvation. He had power to remove himself from the cross. He didn’t do it though. His cry: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ was a sentence from the Psalm 22. The Psalm would be prayed by pious Jews when they felt abandoned by God. By saying those words of the Psalm 22 Jesus brought into his act of salvation all our human situations when in pain, agony and distress we wouldn’t be able to make up any prayer.
            As I said before the voice of the Father wasn’t to be heard again, but it would be better to say that the voice of the Father wasn’t to be heard again in the same way. When Jesus gave up his spirit a pagan soldier who was watching said: ‘In truth this man was a son of God.’ That pagan soldier, whose name we don’t even know, was one of many followers of Jesus who have been given grace to see the triumph of God and his love even in the situations when everything seems to contradict such belief.
            Without God’s grace we can be shocked that God asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. However God who made such a request was the same loving God who ‘didn’t spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all.’ Abraham was allowed to experience what God the Father would experience when his Son was to be on the cross on the Hill of Calvary.
            At this Mass we will again lift up to heaven bread and wine so that our congregation again can be drawn to what Jesus accomplished for us on Calvary. We won’t just observe it we will participate in it. We will be drawn into it. May receiving Jesus’ Body give you grace to say after that pagan soldier: ‘In truth this man was a son of God.’ May believing in Jesus, the Beloved Son of God, help you to see yourself as God’s child loved by God to heaven.
        My Dear fellow believers! In 1925 Pier Giorgio’s grandmother was dying. He was 24. When the whole family was occupied with his grandmother he developed some muscle pain. He went to bed but no one realised he was sick. It turned out to be aggressive polio which took his life a few days later. In his own agony he didn’t make fuss about himself. In fact he ensured that the poor he was helping were looked after. At his funeral his affluent family was surprised when thousands of poor people turned up. The poor people were surprised to discover that the young man who related so well to them came from such a wealthy family. However what was evident to all was that in his life and in his dying Pier Giorgio held onto his deep belief that he was loved by God. It  gave him grace to live godly and to die peacefully.

​            Do you like stories about mothers-in-law? I’ve got one for you this Sunday. Early July, 1943 Nazi soldiers arrested a group of farmers. Among them were a nine-month-pregnant Anna and her husband. Than Anna’s mother-in-law, Maryanne, felt to her knees before the officer and pleaded: ‘Take me. I will go instead of her.’ The officer agreed. Two weeks later Maryanne, her son and other prisoners were executed. Don’t you think that it is a good mother-in-law story?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! When Jesus went to the desert Satan tried to deter Jesus from the mission of salvation. That plan failed. Jesus didn’t retract from the mission of salvation. ‘Jesus went into Galilee.’ However Galilee was not his final destination. It was a gate to the whole world, including ours here in Australia. This succinct testimony given by St Mark is not the only proof of Jesus being committed to the mission of salvation. The mother-in-law story I’ve told you is another proof of Jesus continuing on his mission of salvation. On that dark day in 1943 when evil seemed to triumph Maryanne’s choice: ‘I will go instead of her’ was like a ray of sun piercing through the dark clouds. She did what Jesus did when he offered his life to save people.
            At the beginning of Lent the Book of Genesis, points to the bow called a rainbow. A rainbow is a pretty thing, isn’t it? However each rainbow reminds us of that covenant God made with Noah and the whole humankind after the Great Flood. The punishment for human sins God will take upon himself. That’s why the bow called rainbow aims at the sky, at God. It did happen on that dark day we call Good Friday. What’s good about that day? Jesus took upon himself what should strike us for our sins. The first Pope, St Peter wrote: ‘Christ himself, innocent though he was, died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God.’
            My Dear fellow believers!  At the beginning of Lent 2021, take heart because Jesus enters your life again to fight for the beauty and dignity of your heart, soul and body. At the words of consecration: ‘This is my Body. This is my Blood’ we will witness Jesus descend not just on the altar. We will witness our Blessed Lord coming again to our own life, to our own Galilee. Although we don’t sing Alleluia during these days leading to Easter but as Church we cannot contain our joy and gratitude even in Lent. That’s why we have found a way around to do it. We do it by proclaiming: ‘Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory.’ We are creative, aren’t we?
            We do praise our King of endless glory for dying for us on that first Good Friday and for coming to save us in our real life in February 2021. We do so with deep hope that our own real life story can become a holy story like the story of Maryanne who was beatified in 1999. Now she is venerated as Blessed Maryanne. It is a great mother-in-law story indeed. For that story we too say: ‘Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory.’

​            In the mid of the nineteenth century Hawaii was plagued by Hansen’s disease. It is another name for leprosy. In 1866 the Hawaiian government decided to move all the lepers to the isolated island of Molokai in an attempt to contain the spread of that contagious disease. People feared leprosy because it was causing a slow decay of the human body. However, once the lepers were out of sight, the government and the general population of Hawaii turned a blind eye to their basic needs. Molokai became a dysfunctional community. Although it happened more than three thousand years after what was written about leprosy in the Book of Leviticus, which is our First Reading for today, we can sense similarity. Similarity of the fear. Similarity of trying to eliminate the lepers from the wider community. The only difference was that the Jews didn’t have an island to send lepers to. That’s why they were forced to stay outside of towns. Although leprosy is not an issue these days as there are ways to treat it we have been plagued by a contagious disease too: coronavirus. Quarantine has become part of our life. Some people even argue that the overseas passengers should be sent somewhere to the desert, away from the community. After all it appears that fear is more contagious than any other disease.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! When Hawaiian lepers were sent away a young Belgium priest who ministered there asked a local bishop for permission to go to Molokai. His name was Damian de Veuster. He was 26 at the time. The bishop not only gave him permission but accompanied him to the island and like a good shepherd introduced the young missionary to 816 lepers saying that Fr Damian ‘is one who will be a father to you and who loves you so much that he does not hesitate to become one of you, to live and die with you.’ That colony of lepers became Fr Damian’s home. He cared for them spiritually, socially and physically. He motivated them to be involved in bettering the living conditions of the island. Despite being advised not to touch lepers he kept giving them Holy Communion, Holy Anointing as well as attending to their wounds. Lepers were stunned because before no one wanted to touch them. Fr Damian’s gestures showed that he didn’t want to serve them from afar. He wanted to be one of them.
            As Fr Damian’s fellow Catholic we should be proud but also we should keep in mind that what that priest did was inspired by the attitude of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who as we could hear in our Gospel feeling sorry for the leper, stretched out his hand and touched him. This hand of the Lord, which was pierced on the cross, is still stretched out to bring the healing caused by the worst disease ever. It is neither leprosy nor COVID-19. It is sin. That’s why after hearing about leprosy in our First Reading we turned to God praying the Psalm 31: I have acknowledged my sins, my guilt I did not hide. We acknowledge our sins. We don’t hide them because we don’t want the sin to consume us like leprosy consumes the body. We lay our sins bare when we go to the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation because after having confessed our sins humbly and honesty we can repeat with full confidence the words of today’s Psalm: You Lord, have forgiven the guilt of my sin. Then we can truly celebrate our new life exclaiming: ‘Rejoice, rejoice in the Lord, exult, you just. O come, ring out your joy, all you upright of heart.’ It is our Risen Lord, who touched the leper, who touches us in his Sacraments too and makes us just and upright of heart.
            When the Hawaiians sent the lepers to Molokai it was out of fear. Why Fr Damian de Veuster chose to go there it was out of love for Jesus who shared with the young priest his love for the outcasts. Fr Damian who wanted to be one of them eventually contracted leprosy too. Then he wrote to his brother in Belgium: ‘I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ.’ When on death bed he kept praying: ‘Thy will be done.’ Can you hear in his words the words of the Son of God, Jesus Christ?
            Fr Damian died on 15 of April 1889 at the age of 49. Did he die of leprosy or out of love? When Pope Benedict XVI canonised Fr Damian in 2009 it was recognition that the death of the new saint was out of love.
            I pray so that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is speaking to us right now through his Holy Word and who will offer his Body and Blood for us at this Mass, may heal each one of us of any torments we may be carrying.
St Damian of Molokai, pray for us.
​Have a wonderful Lent.