One of the Chosen Ones

Stretch out your hand." Mark 3:5

In a few days it will be the Feast Day of Saint Marianne Cope, who entered the Sisters of Saint Francis at the age of 24. Like Jesus, she helped many of the outcasts of society. In 1883, Marianne received a plea from King Kalakua and Queen Kapi’olani of the Kingdom of Hawai’i to help the lepers in Moloka’i, Hawaii. They had already written to more than 50 other religious congregations and had been declined by all. 

Marianne wrote him back, “I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen ones….I am not afraid of any disease, hence it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned lepers.” 

Marianne left for Hawaii with six companions. Two years after she arrived, the King awarded her with the Cross of a Companion of the Royal Order of Kapiolani for setting up hospitals and homes for children of lepers. In November 1888, Marianne cared for St. Damien of Molokai in his final years, and she and her companions began to take over his work in the leper colony.

For fifty-six of the eighty years of her life she lavished love and care on men, women and children with withered hands, bodies, and hearts. At night, she would stay at a patient’s bedside after the lights went out. Miraculously, Marianne never caught the disease and she died of natural causes at the age of 80. 

She said in confidence, “God gives us life; He will take it away in His own good time. Meanwhile it is our duty to make life as pleasant and comfortable as possible for those of our fellow-creatures whom He has chosen to afflict.”

We may not know any lepers, but I am certain we know many who are sick in the body or in their hearts. Do we see it as our duty to make life pleasant and comfortable for them in any way we can?