Today is the Solemnity of St. Joseph Vaz, the Saint of Sri Lanka. He was born in 1651 in India. In 1676 he was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Goa. Soon after his ordination he lived as a poor person going barefoot and was accepted as a popular preacher and confessor. In 1677 he consecrated himself as a “slave of Mary” and sealed it as the “Deed of Bondage”.

The first proclamation is about God’s messenger; blessed are the feet of the messenger who takes good news to the nations in hopeless situations. St. Joseph Vaz who committed to follow God’s leading came to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) at a time that the church was going through hopelessness.

The Church of Ceylon was going through persecution. The Dutch feared that the Catholics wouldn’t be loyal to them therefore persecuted them. The Catholic priests were banished from the country and the verdict was given regarding a capital punishment if anyone accommodated Catholic priests. Catholic churches and schools were confiscated. Catholics were required to attend services in Dutch kirks and to have their children baptized, their marriages solemnized and their dead buried according to Calvinist rites. This situation prolonged close to three decades. Catholics at the time didn’t have priests to administer Sacraments. But God kept the Catholic faith preserved and sent St. Joseph Vaz to Ceylon during this time.

In the second proclamation St. Paul bid farewell. He warned his brothers before leaving that the good news he preached would be perverted, therefore, to keep watch over themselves and the flock of which the Holy Spirit appointed them overseers. Something to ponder; God acquired “the Church” by His own Blood, henceforth, the sole owner of the “Church” is God. No human person could twist the Gospel nor distort the written ‘Word of God’. The assurance of God is sealed in the Gospel proclamation. The Lord Jesus commissioned His apostles to carry the good news to the ends of the earth and they did. The marvelous works of God follows when the Gospel is preached. We are witnesses of the flourished Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Let’s face persecution boldly because God reigns and His word is true. The Lord Jesus said, that the netherworld shall not prevail against the church.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank you for sending St. Joseph Vaz to revive the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Amen.