THE GLORIOUS SEQUEL
WHILE Joseph had lain on his death bed, he had been granted a vision of the multitude of people who would come to belief in God in Lesotho in the years to come. "Divine mercy is infinite," a guest heard him murmur."It will not be content with so small a number of conversions in Lesotho."
And the glorious sequel to his life of love and labour began the instant he surrendered his soul to the Creator. The bush telegraph worked overtime and from far and wide the mourners arrived for his funeral which was held two days later. The songs they sang were hymns of joy, not mourning. Ntate Gerata had gone home to God and all who loved him shared in the joy of their sure knowledge that he had come into his eternal reward.
Paramount Chief Griffith was at the funeral, as was Chief Maama. "Father Gerard came to us a long time ago," he said. "At that time I was still a young boy and it was then that I got to know him. When I was older I met him often and when I called to see him during his final illness he spoke so impressively that I shall never forget his words."
Chief Maama reminded the people that it was Father Gerard who carried prayer and food to King Moshoeshoe over at Thaba Bosiu while it was under siege. He marvelled at how Gerard had passed through the besieger lines.
Chief Maama continued, "Father Gerard was certainly an extraordinary man, a man who never spared himself in his priestly ministry, who had the same concern for the chief and the pauper...
you could find him, our father, on his knees beside a sickbed, praying and instructing the sick person in the things of God.
"In conclusion I shall express my thoughts in this way: Father Gerard was a man who, you might say, did not eat food, but fed himself on prayer, and if prayer is something which which one can feed the people, then he has fed us Basotho too, for a very long time."
Nobody knows who was the first person to decide to take soil from Father Gerard's grave but soon people found Ramehlolo had not forgotten them, even though he was no longer alive in their midst.
There was a family of six who had run out of mealie meal with no hope of more until the following harvest. They threw a handful of the soil in the food sack and for the next four months it yielded as much meal as they required.
In the end, the mother put the remainder into a paraffin tin and added a little more of the soil. For a further seventeen days, the contents fed two adults and a child. By then the rains had come and the harvest was ripening and the sack as well as the jug failed to field any further provisions. Father Gerard interceded only when the need lasted.
Many illnesses were cured among people who wore a small bag containing the soil around their necks. Others were kept immune from epidemics. A child who could only move around on crutches regained her health. A woman whose hands and feet were deformed, was also cured.
A young boy, Gabriel Seforo, wasted by disease, was asked by his mother to use the little strength he had left to ask for Father Gerard's intercession to procure his healing. He did as she asked and was cured instantaneously.
Josepha, the mother of several children who had died, saw that her last-born, too, was at death's door. On the advice of their friends, she carried him to Father Gerard's grave. The journey took two days. Every now and then Josepha checked her baby to see if the little one was still breathing. When she arrived at the grave, her infant was barely alive. She and her friends prayed fervently for nine days. The baby was cured completely, and, rejoicing, they returned to their village.
"When we went to Father Gerard's grave, I walked as if I could see the Apostle of the Basotho in my heart," Josepha said. "I felt him close to us. It was his presence that upheld me to the end."
In 1940 and 1941 a process for the beatification of Father Gerard was set into motion. Many people came forward with tales of miraculous cures.
One cure was that of Florina Phakela, who in 1928 at the age of six was cured of blindness. Florina had developed eye trouble at the age of six. Growths appeared within the sockets of her eyes and protruded from them. She became totally blind. Every month her mother took her to a Dr. Hertz, who visited Roma on these occasions. For five months he treated her. During the sixth visit, he returned the five shilling fee to Florina's mother and told her he could do nothing for her child.
On the advice of her parish priest, the mother put a bag which contained soil from Father Gerard's grave around her child's neck at the site of the tomb. Next day Father Pennerath visited Florina to pray over her and let her hold Father Gerard's stole in her hand. Her mother started a novena to the Apostle of Lesotho.
While the novena was still on, a priest Florina did not know appeared to her in a dream. He put his hand on her eyes and said: "You will be cured, my child, and you will see again."
Next morning when she awoke she was cured. The secretions from her eyes had dried up and disappeared. The outgrowths from the eye sockets which protruded about 2 cm had also disappeared. The sores on her head had formed crusts. By the following morning they too had gone.
Florina was delighted, telling her mother not to dress her because she could see. She told what had happened and was taken to the presbytery by her mother, where she asked to see the priest who had appeared to her. There was a retreat on and all the priests were there. Not one of them was the one she sought. She was shown six photographs and pointed out an old picture of Father Gerard, who had died fourteen years previously, saying: "That's the one. It was he who came to visit me at night."
Ramehlolo, who never could bear to see a child suffer, had once again asked God for a miracle and the wonder had been granted.
Father Joseph Gerard of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 15, 1988, in a Mass conducted at at Lesotho's capital, Maseru. This man, a son of French farmers, whose mode of travel was on horseback and whose only desire ever was to bring people to the happiness of knowing God, is now known as Blessed Joseph Gerard OMI.
The Basotho feel about Blessed Joseph Gerard the way the Irish do about St. Patrick.
The impressive aspect about this holy man of God, however, is the quality of the service he gave rather than the measure of his success. Few people, having read an account of Ntate Gerata, would doubt that he would have rendered the same service without stinting if he had realised at the beginning of his priestly life that all his labours together would succeed in bringing one person alone into relationship with the One and True God Who created us.
Joseph Gerard became great only because to him, except for himself, no human being ever appeared small.
If you wish to find out more about this great man of God, visit
Joseph Gerard, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_G%C3%A9rard
Oblate Communications tells of Joseph Gerard and the new icon of Blessed Joseph Gerard by Oblate Associate Suzanne Manchevsky, see
http://www.omiworld.org/information.asp?iID=435&N=&pag=6
Do you feel inspired to bring the Word of God to others? Then why not follow Blessed Joseph Gerard's path and become a priest.
The graceful thatched house surrounded by whispering trees - a sight to lift the spirits of the weary traveller and a reminder of the hospitality given to Joseph Gerard in Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment