Born To Heaven

BORN TO HEAVEN

His Ardent Zeal

It was desire of Blessed Joseph Vaz to visit Catholics in far off places and minister to them. This ardent zeal for souls, took him, in spite of his failing health to Kottiyar at the beginning of the year 1770. This missionary journey to the eastern coastal extremity of the island was too much for him and he fell gravely ill at a distance of nine days journey from Kandy. He was transported in a carriage to Kandy. He recovered a little in Kandy, but could not walk properly. He could not undertake his laborious journeys; in spite of this, he used to go around the entire city of Kandy with the support of a cane. In this condition during the absence of Fr. Jacome Gansalves, he even went in a carriage to administer the last Sacraments to two dying persons at a distance of a mile from the city. On return he fell down from the carriage and was completely exhausted. He tried to celebrate Mass for some days but could not, due to weakness. He bore his last grave illness with courage and great fortitude. The immense pains he had in almost all parts of his body gave him much to suffer for about 4 months. In spite of them he undertook nine days of spiritual exercises. He considered himself a great sinner. He received the Sacrament of reconciliation every day as well as the sacrament of Communion.

After the Easter of 1710 he had a wound which seemed to heal but which soon resulted in a painful abscess behind his ear, giving out pus and preventing him from opening his mouth. Doctors could not decipher its cause. No medicine was effective against it. So he said "up to now no doctor has been able to diagnose my sickness, but I cannot fail to understand that this is a salutary medicine of the Heavenly Doctor, who with His Divine Wisdom and Fatherly love wants to cure the wounds of my soul, because I paid always a deaf ear to his inspirations and appeals. For this He has permitted me to be unable to speak loudly and to be unable to hear when others talk softly, because I always loved to hear praises of myself without deserving them." The pain in his head and neck were every severe. Even then his pre-occupation was for the future of the mission.

Therefore, before his death, sensing that his time had come, and in order to avoid trouble, Blessed Joseph Vaz prudently appointed Fr. Joseph Menezes as his successor in the post of Superior and Vicar general of the Mission of Ceylon. He wrote a letter requesting him to accept it on 7-1-1711 and when no reply came, as Fr. Menezes was far away in Puttalam, Bl. Joseph Vaz wrote his last letter on 15-1-1711 making the appointment and requesting prayers of the community and suffrages for his soul. During his last sickness when he couldn't move in the Church due to his weakness, he would explain the Catechism and teach Christian doctrine to the children and others who came to see him. Even after he suffered his last attack he persisted in explaining the mysteries of the faith.

Even during his last illness when he was burning with high fever and pain, he took part in all the spiritual exercises of the community with his companions. He received the sacraments of Reconciliation and Extreme Unction, and asked them to recite for him the prayers for those in agony. He even responded "Pray for me" when the litany of the saints was recited.

A little before his death, two times he requested his confreres to put him on the ground to die saying that he was not worthy of dying on the bed. As he was just about to expire, he asked for the indulgenced Crucifix sent to him by the Papal Legate Tournon, and holding it tight in his hands with a burning candle, he professed that he was dying in the same faith and Catholic Religion in which had lived in entire subjection to Holy Mother of the Church; he remained for a few moments in contemplation. Then he repeated the act of faith many times as he breathed his last with the holy name of JESUS on his lips.

Thus, Blessed Joseph Vaz died a beautiful death around midnight on Friday, 16th January of the year 1711. His parting message to his confreres, a little before his death, was given in Sinhalese words whose meaning was: "Hardly will one be able to do at the time of death what one has not done in life". He had spent 24 years of untiring and restless labors in the mission of Sri Lanka. He was 59 years, 6 months and 26 days old.

The news of the passing way of Bl. Joseph Vaz spread like wild fire. One of the first to be informed was King Narendrasimha who sent his condolence to the priests. People from far and near flocked to the city. To satisfy the devotion of all, the coffin with the corpse was exposed for 3 days. During the funeral, Fr, Jacome Gonsalves delivered the funeral Oration. The corpse was buried with all solemnity in the Church of Kandy. Only Fr. Jacome Gonsalves and Fr. Inacio Almeida took part in the funeral rites. Not even Fr. Menezes nor any other priest, who were quite far from Kandy, could attend the funeral. In the report of 1713, Fr. Manuel de Miranda writes that Fr. Joseph Menezes got the first letter from the Blessed only on 17th January and the news of his death with this second letter only on 24th January 1711.

Bl. Joseph Vaz in spite of belonging to a reputed Goan family, did not consider his nobility, a thing to grasped, but emptied himself ministering to all, irrespective of language, caste, sex and social status. "He mastered both Sinhalese and Tamil to be able to serve all communities". Kings, adigars (ministers), Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Calvinists, Catholics, Sinhalese, Tamilians, Portuguese, Dutch, Goans and Kanadiagas: men of different religions and languages--he gathered them all in the fold of his loving service. Rich and poor, downtrodden, sick and abandoned all merited his loving care and concern. Today in this tragic hour of tensions and communal violence in India and in this hour of ethnic struggles in Sri Lanka, Fr. Joseph Vaz's approach of humble and courageous openness to every person in evangelical love and fraternity indicates the essential ministry that the Church has to offer…, the ministry of forgiveness, hope and reconciliation. He, like St. Paul, became all things to all men and he did so by following the more excellent way, the way of love.

"The evangelization which had preceded the Oratorian Mission in Sri Lanka had imposed on the Tamils and the Sinhalese a totally westernized Church". In an article on Fr. Vaz in "Eglise Vivante", No 2, 1952, Pg. 22, Michael Dumotier says that the "Church in Sri Lanka was a piece of the Church of Portugal, uprooted from there and replanted in the island without taking into consideration the differences of acclimatization". This Church was totally wiped out by the onslaught of the Dutch and the absence of priests for well-nigh 30 years. "But the second foundation from Goa", writes Fr. S. G. Pereira "Was not in the manner of the first, a readymade organization, imported from abroad and imposed on all who hearkened to the Gospel of Christ, but a Church adapted in externals to the conditions of the country and to the genius of the people.

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