THE LATE FATHER M. J. LEWIS

New Zealand Tablet, 17 April 1919, Page 19

THE LATE FATHER M. J. LEWIS

■» ; SOLEMN REQUIEM AT PATEA. On Tuesday last (writes an esteemed correspondent under date April 7) the people of Patea paid. an appropriate tribute of respect to the memory of the late Father M. J. Lewis. The occasion was a Solemn Requiem for the repose of his soul. Every effort was made to give the deceased priest a high and lasting place in the memory of the people who profited for a brief period by his first missionary labors. During the earlier Masses in the morning the people attended in good numbers, and many offered Holy Communion for the repose of his soul. Again at 11 a.m. the people from all parts of the parish showed their appreciation of the deceased priest by taxing the church to its utmost capacity. At the Solemn Requiem his Grace Archbishop O'Shea presided and also pronounced the Absolution at the Catafalque.

Father Duffy (Patea) was celebrant Father Moore (Ohura), deacon ; Father Phelan (Masterton), subdeacon ; and Father Cashman (Marton), master of ceremonies. There were also present Very Rev. Dean McKenna (New Plymouth), Very Rev. Dean Power (Hawera), Fathers O’Connell, S.M., Menard, S.M., McDonald, S.M. (Wanganui), O’Beirne (Carterton), McManus (Palmerston North), O’Dwyer (Fielding), Maples (Stratford), Long (Inglewood), Saunderson (Manaia), Doolaghty (Opunake), and Harnett (Patea). At the conclusion of the impressive ceremonies Rev. Father J. A. O’Connell, S.M., in an eloquent and touching discourse, from the text “Thou art a priest forever” Heb. v. 6. delivered the following beautiful panegyric: We are assembled this morning to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of a young hero priest, and to offer up prayers and supplications to the throne of God for the eternal repose of his soul. It may be well on such an occasion, when priests and people come together, to consider what a priest is.

“A priest,” says St. Paul, “is one taken from among men, and ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb. v. 1). Neither doth any man take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God as Aaron was.

Our Blessed Saviour, speaking to His Apostles on their election to this high dignity, and wishing to imprint on their minds a just sense of His immense love for them in choosing them for such an office, says “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you—you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” (John xv, 16-19.) JTrom this plain declaration of Scripture it appears that a priest is a person called in a special manner by the will of God from among other men to an entire separation from the world and dedicated to his Divine Saviour to be employed ,in the things that appertain to God, “to offer up gifts and sacrifices to Him.” First— is appointed to offer up that supreme act of public and external worship which is due to God

alone and consists of sacrifice. The homage of adoration, thanksgiving, propitiation, and supplication, is due to God from all men j these are the four great ends of sacrifice. \ Next, —he has positive duties towards men. lie is bound to teach and instruct them in whatsoever relates to the service of God and the salvation of their souls, to sanctify and assist them according to the nature of his priesthood and the powers given to him for that purpose. Hence it appears that the supreme government and direction of the people in everything that relates to the worship of God and the salvation of souls is committed to the priesthood subject to such limitations or conditions as God may prescribe. The Catholic Church understands this, and has ever given to her priesthood the respect due to so high an office. The world, in its pride, rails against the office and authority of a priesthood and protests that no one should stand between itself and God. It seems to forget that God, not the world, has to decide this question. From the days of Adam men have never been without priests to offer sacrifice in their name and to teach them the Divine law. When Jesus Christ came into the world He absorbed info Himself" the entire office of priesthood, and from His coming until the end of time God will recognise no other priesthood, no other sacrifice, and no other teaching than that of Jesus Christ. Our Blessed Lord selected His Apostles from amongst men and ordained them to carry on the glorious work of the priesthood. How beautiful are the titles our Blessed Lord gives to them: •'You are the salt of the earthbut if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?" (Matt. V. 13.) As salt preserves meat from corruption, so is the priest placed among the faithful that he may preserve them from moral taint by his example aiid precepts.

\e are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid.” (Matt. v. Id.) , Jesus is the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, and the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood were placed to shine by His light, and to enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. A priest is distinguished by the titles of ‘‘Friend of Christ,” ‘‘Brothel* of Jesus.’ 3 “I will not now call you servants, for the servant kiioweth Hot what his lord doeth : but I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of My Father, I have made known to you.” (John xv. 15.)

After His resurrection our Lord sent by Mary Magdalen this gracious and touching message to His Apostles ‘‘Go to My Brothers and say to them: ‘I ascend to My Father and to your Father, to My God and your God.” (John xx. 7.) The priest is known also as the ‘‘Man of God.” This title the priest shares with the prophets of old because his mission, like theirs, is divine, and because he is exhorted to resemble God in’ the holiness of his life. ' *

St. Paul calls the priest ‘‘a. dispenser of the mysteries of God.” (1 Cor. iv. 1.)

The minister of reconciliation- — ‘‘All things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. v. 18.) The priest is styled the “Physician of the soul.” ‘‘ls any man sick among you,” says St. James, ‘‘let him call in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of Ihe Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up : and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (James v. 14-15.) The priest is called the Ambassador of Christ. ‘ For Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors, God, as it were, exhorting by us.” (2 Cor. v. 20.)

The most beautiful and significant title the priest bears it that of ‘‘Father,” for it sums up all that the others contain. It presents to us the priest with all the affection and devotion of the most loving of fathers in his watchfulness over his children, providing

for their every need, and protecting them in every danger and trial: .. Such is the high ideal set by the Catholic Church in regard to her priesthood. Such is the teaching infused into the heart and soul of each Levi'te during his days of preparation for the high office to which he aspires. And when, after years of prayer and study, he is called before the altar to undertake the weightiest office that human being can hold—all that these titles signify becomes to him a stern reality. He becomes, on the day of his ordination, a priest for ever according to the Order of Melchisedech. The dear young priest whose memory we come to honor this morning was prepared for the priesthood with these high ideals of the priestly office set before him. He became a priest to engage in the sacred duties of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, of baptising, of preaching, of reconciling the sinner, of dispensing the Blessed Eucharist, of performing the duties of physician of the soul,—in a word, of becoming a father, a friend, a benefactor. And it was in the discharge of the sacred duties he had undertaken, that Father Lewis became a hero, a martyr, and gave his life for his fellow-man. It was during the dreadful days of the epidemic that the saintly priest rose from his bed of sickness, knowing full well what it would mean to him, to prove himself the true minister of reconciliation and the physician of souls in bringing comfort to some plaguestricken soldiers who cried for help in their last moments. Father Lewis, the true priest, the true Father, brought salvation to them, but the effort cost him his life at the very dawn of his priesthood, so full of promise in the production of good and abundant fruit. God, in His wisdom, has called him from His vineyard. His labors, though short, are over, but the memory of that young hero priest and of his noble deeds, will live just as the memory of a Father Damien or ally of the martyr priests of the Catholic Church. We honor his memory, and we pray that whatever imperfections human nature may have found in him will be speedily removed, and his soul, sealed with the invincible character of the priesthood, will be admitted to the eternal joys of Paradise.