Today, 5th October, 2014, marks the countdown of ‘100 days’ to the canonization of our Beloved Fr. Joseph Vaz scheduled for 14th January, 2015 at the Galle Face Green, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
During this time, we are bound to specially remember how much, we in Goa, Kanara and Sri Lanka owe individually and collectively to the missionary zeal of our son of Goa. The significance and relevance of Father Joseph Vaz for the Catholics of Sri Lanka can never be overestimated. He was the one who saved the faith for the Ceylonese against the most vicious and most diabolical assaults in an earlier period of Ceylon’s history.
At a time when Ceylon had scarcely a priest, from their own ranks, it was the missionary – in Blessed Joseph Vaz, who spread the light of Christianity in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). There is no one who can fail to be thrilled by the labours of this missionary priest, who went from Goa, under trying circumstances, in order to dedicate himself to establish a Christian Church in Ceylon. His life was not only an adventure but a romance of grace. There was something about his rapidity of action and his headlong devotion that reminds us of the strong urges of soul that manifested themselves in all the swift completeness of service that marked St. Francis of Assisi.
Both were precipitate men. Working in the early years in disguise and adopting innumerable shifts and expeditions to evade arrest at the hands of his Christian opponents who belonged to another creed, his labours were incessant and distinguished by immense courage of heart and burning love for his fellowmen. There clings about him a poetry of holiness. He is one of the great heroes of missionary enterprise and there is no doubt that he was not only an inspiration in his day but that he continues to inspire even today, the great example that he has set for a priest.
As we prepare for the great day to be held on 14th January, 2015, let us Goans in Goa and outside Goa clamour to throng the Galle Face beach front and congregate in mammoth numbers at Colombo to witness our very own “Gaum-bhau’ Juse Vaas – as he is known in Sri Lanka to this day, elevated to Sainthood.
Nearly twenty years ago on 21st January, 1995, this writer had the privilege of attending the Papal Mass held at the Galle Face Green, Colombo, when Pope John Paul II conducted the beatification of our Bl. Joseph Vaz. It was pathetic to note, the small number of our Goans who attended the same and barely managed to fill the enclosure reserved for us. Let us go now in hundreds, if not in thousands to be present at this momentous occasion.
