Father Linus Mendis celebrated his 50th Ordination Anniversary on October 15th. He is a most beloved priest, brother, friend, and colleague. Thank you to all the many volunteers and staff who helped make his Golden Jubilee a joyous event!

“You shall treat this fiftieth year as sacred” (Lv. 25:10).
A jubilee is a time for rejoicing. 
The word jubilee comes from the Hebrew word for “ram’s horn,” which is how the celebration began — with the blowing of the horn. After seven cycles of seven years, the jubilee was a gift celebrated in the fiftieth year, a year of divine mercy.
Fifty years ago, on October 11, 1973, Fr. Linus Mendis was consecrated by the sacrament of Holy Orders to be a servant to the people of the church. He was the first priest to be ordained in the Diocese of Badulla, Sri Lanka. As he often says, quoting Pope Gregory the Great, “I am the servant of the servants of God.”
When God first called Abraham, he said, “Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you” (Gn 12:1). Because of his faith and trust in God, Abraham obeyed and he was blessed as the father of a great nation. In a similar way, Fr. Linus has shown great virtue in his attitude of openness to the needs of the Church. Even leaving his own home and family, Fr. Linus is willing to follow Christ wherever he leads. For that he has been richly blessed by the love of his dear friends.
Since arriving in the Archdiocese of Boston from the diocese of Badulla, Fr. Linus has tended to his flock with the word and grace of God. He has served in the parishes of St. Joseph (Somerville), St. Joseph (Malden), Our Lady of the Assumption (Lynnfield), Holy Family (Gloucester), St. Thomas of Villanova (Wilmington), Incarnation of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Melrose), St. Thomas the Apostle (Millis), and St. Joseph (Medway). 
With each new assignment, Fr. Linus has stood ready to answer God’s call with the fervency of Samuel: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Sm 3:9). But it has also required the humility of Christ to say, “Not as I will, but as you will” (Mt 26:39). 
Fr. Linus is able to make these sacrifices because his life is centered on the worship of God and the joy of the Gospel. Through word and deed he is a model of what it means to celebrate the glory of God in a worthy manner. Moreover, his nature as a “cheerful giver” makes him a gift to our communities (2 Cor 9:7). Under Fr. Linus’s care, we are all welcome—the saint and the sinner, the rich and the poor, the devoted and the downtrodden. In a world redeemed by the God who rolled the stone from the tomb, Christ rose so that we might all share in the joy of an eternal Easter.
Fr. Linus has made us all his “dear friends.” With his beautiful words and his priestly heart, he has dedicated his life to teaching, shepherding, and sanctifying our lives as members of the Body of Christ. Through his celebration of the Mass, preaching, pastoral guidance, and administration of the sacraments, Fr. Linus lives a life overflowing with faith, hope, and love. He is a man of true vocation.
It falls on every generation to carry forward the message of Christ. As we celebrate this Jubilee Year with Fr. Linus, let us rejoice in his goodwill and his particular devotion to the message of Divine Mercy:  “Jesus, I trust in you.”

David Palmieri, M.T.S., M.Ed., Saint Joseph Parish, Medway