When a Holy Family Sister entered the room and asked the parents why they were crying, the distraught parents said their baby was going to die.

“Why are you crying?” she asked them. “Don’t you have faith?”

Sister Clement joined the parents to pray the rosary, reassuring them during this worship, something would happen.

While they were praying, a doctor who had just returned from his graduate studies in America came to the hospital.

By a stroke of luck, a miracle or God’s will, this doctor had learnt about the newborn's condition while in America and knew the exact two injections the baby would require to save his life.

He rushed to the room and administered one injection.

Twenty minutes later, he administered the second injection.

The baby immediately started responding.

Sister Clement told the parents, “God has given this child back to you. Now you must make a decision to hand him over to God.”

And so, the child’s destiny was born.

The couple named their son Joseph and life went on. More children were born, the fisherman continued fishing, the children climbed coconut trees and learnt to swim in the ocean.

Joseph made his first Holy Communion at age nine along with all the village boys and girls. While all of the children wore traditional Sri Lankan attire, Joseph’s Grandmother insisted he wear a button-up shirt, suit jacket and tie.

An odd direction at the time, hindsight would prove this moment was once again preparing Joseph for his destiny.

In 1983 the Sri Lankan Civil War intensified. As the war continued to escalate, Joseph’s father had a gut feeling they were no longer safe, so he packed his family’s valuables and fled with his wife and five sons.

They were the first family to leave their village and were ridiculed for their caution. Once they reached their safe place that afternoon, Joseph’s father told him, “Son, go and prepare a fire and put on a big pot of water as we will be receiving all the fellows. We will need to give them a cup of coffee when they arrive.”

Within hours, the rest of the village found themselves gathered around the family’s campfire, the urgency of their evacuation leaving them with nothing.

Soon after, the family moved into a Refugee Camp in the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, the National Marian Shrine at the heart of the Diocese of Mannar.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Human Rights signage was the first English letters Joseph would ever see and learn.

While the camp was a peace zone, it lay between the army’s area and the rebel’s area. The camp was safe; but many people were killed by exchanging gunfire when they would go and fetch firewood from the jungle.

They learnt to time their trips after 11pm, during a full moon at night, to minimise their noise and to lie low under a tree in the jungle to avoid artilleries.

Thankfully, life went on.

As Joseph became a teen, he knew he would likely follow the path to becoming a fisherman, like his father.

His mother noticed that he showed great potential in his exams and told him he must study further.

It wasn’t until 1991 when Joseph was in his final years of school that he felt a calling to become a priest.

The calling was becoming more prominent, and Joseph went to his mother and told her he thought this was the path he must take.

Joseph was accepted into the seminary however this new dream came to an abrupt halt when he was given instruction on what he must bring to his studies.

Among the list was three white shirts, three coloured shirts and three trousers. Still living below the poverty line within the refugee camp, Joseph knew this was no longer an option, until one day he awoke and came to find his uncles and aunties within the camp had put their money together to purchase everything for him.

They told him, “Things are ready. You go ahead.”

Joseph went on to study at the seminary and completed his formation from 1991 to 2006.

During that time, he saw many different phases of the war, he was the Deacon during the Sri Lankan tsunami in 2004, he suffered more loss and more learning than most people do in a lifetime.

He was ordained in 2006 and lived as a monk until 2017. It took him seven years to make the decision to come to Australia as a missionary priest and leave his monastery life.

He landed in Sydney on 18 October 2017.

Joseph is now Father Joseph Figurado of All Saints’ Blackbutt South Parish.

He is a steadfast member of our own community, who has committed his life to “humble service with a smile.”

This personal motto is at the very heart of how Fr Joseph lives his life.

“I made the decision not to pass my hardships, wounds, and the death I have seen, on to others. I will keep showing up with a smile and laughter because that’s what drives me to make others happy,” Fr Joseph said.

Asked if he always knew he was going to be a priest, he reflects before answering.

“I’m sitting back after telling these stories, and I’m connecting the dots.

“There was the voice inside my head telling me to become a priest.

“There was my grandmother making me wear a shirt, suit and tie to my first Holy Communion. I’m dressing like that every day now. She never had any clue that I would end up here.

“Then there was the Sister who told my parents they must hand me over to God after my life was saved.

“I did like my fishing, but being a priest is my destiny.”

Through countless hurdles, tears, hardships, starvation, lack of electricity, lack of housing, war and loss, Fr Joseph has found purpose for it all.

“Each and every difficulty you encounter in your life will shape you. Form you. And make you stronger,” he said.

“I’ve learnt that you can take the good out of terrible circumstances and make an effort every day to use what has happened to help others.

“Having personal pain in doing good for others, especially in my ministry to sick and dying, gave me the greatest push in my life.

“Whether that is the nature of God, everything comes to your life with purpose. You are born in this world with purpose.”

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