“Illness and suffering have always been among the gravest problems confronted in human life. In illness, man experiences his powerlessness, his limitations, and his finitude. Every illness can make us glimpse death.” (CCC 1500)
As we continue our journey through the Year of Mercy I would like to look at the 5th Corporal Work of Mercy: Visiting the Sick. As the above quote form the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, illness and suffering can often be life changing events where we confront our mortality and our faith in the resurrection and life eternal in heaven. As people of faith it is the open question of how we live our lives and in the works of mercy how we care for and seek to comfort those who suffer illness in their lives.
One of the essential works of an ordained priest is the visiting and anointing of the sick. It is ministry that is both predictable and unpredictable in daily ministry. As a seminarian our Bishop asked us to do a summer of hospital ministry called CPE. I did my summer at Portland Providence Medical Center. I, like most people, was not comfortable around the sick and dying. That summer helped to stretch me in how I interacted and cared for the sick.
The mystery of caring and visiting the sick and suffering isn’t in what we can do but who we are called to be as faithful members of the Body of Christ. What we discover in caring for and being with the sick and dying the sacredness of life and the gift and blessing that comes from God in our daily interactions. Choosing to be with a person who is ill and suffering opens our heart to the reality that we are all destined for something much greater in the unity of love.
As a priest I have witnesses the true miracles of healing both in body and in spirit. The time we, as family and friends, spend in visiting and caring for a beloved helps our hearts to be open to the truth and dignity that life is truly a generous and holy gift given to be shared. Time given is caring for and visiting the ill and suffering can help us to once more cherish the small moments of life which we often, if we are not attentive, allow the blessings of presence and the joy of companionship slip through our fingers. The healing of body and soul comes from the recognition that we are not alone but that in God’s grace we are united to His son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who chooses to enter into our life and death. Because the healing does not only occur in the person who is sick but also in we who stand vigil and allow the prayer of life to move us closer to the hope of salvation.
The Corporal Work of Mercy: Visiting and Caring for the Sick, invites us into a moment of grace where we permit the suffering of our Savior Jesus Christ to rest in between us as we place our lives in God’s holy hands knowing that he is always with us. The vows of marriage are the promises of Christian hope where the husband and wife profess not only their love for each other but also their care, “in sickness and in health” united in this Sacrament of unity. As the family of God, united in the Sacramental love of Baptism, we too make the promise to be with the other, in sickness and in health, because it is there that we find Jesus.
God Bless
Fr. Mark