Father Damian's Tuba

This week in our midweek services we have been remembering Fr. Damian and Sister Marianne who served the leper colony on Molokai. Although I have never made the crossing to Molokai I did spend several weeks on Maui and the picture above was taken at a festival in Lahaina which is just across the water from Molokai.

It was a lovely day, full of light and joy. People were dressed up in bright colors, there was a big parade, gorgeous flowers, bands, children - everything that makes for a community celebration. I liked the reflection in the tuba which was why I took a picture of it.

Towards the end of the day the band were packing their things away in the town square and a tuba was holding a different reflection so I snapped a picture. The ocean was, I think, to my left when I was standing there - in any case I remember thinking that just over that ocean, a few miles away from all this life and bustle there had been a place where people had been sent, away from everything they knew and all that they loved, to eventually die.

That feeling of sadness and the surrounding joy is real in our lives and the collect for Damian and Marianne sums up very well our calling to keep ourselves in the reality of all aspects of human life it asks God to....

"Help us, following their examples, to be bold and loving in confronting the incurable plagues of our time, that your people may live in health and hope...."

This means we have to consider what might be those plagues, where do we push people away and make them live apart?

In the Gospel for the day Jesus is very clear that the sign of the Kingdom is that the blind receive sight, the lepers are made clean, the lame leap for joy - we are a part of that kingdom - how are we following the example of those who take Christ's love to those who are cast out and hidden?