ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in the Medical Profession,

It is with real joy that I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and express to you my highest esteem. The lofty calling that you pursue, and your desire to bring your faith in the Lord of life to bear in your medical profession, are indeed a source of great inspiration. You bring light to a world of much darkness; and in practicing the art you have cultivated, having been blessed with special gifts and talents, you are a healing balm for both body and soul.

There is a quite significant link between the theme of resurrection which emerges in today’s readings and the profession that unites you. In the first reading from the Second Book of Maccabees, a terrible story of suffering is recounted in which, if we continue the account, seven brothers and their mother are mercilessly tortured and executed for following their conscience and refusing to violate their faith in the living God. In offering their lives as a sacrifice they show a confident hope of vindication and new life from the God of love and justice. The second brother makes his proclamation to the torturer: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.”

It is strange to realize that most of the people of the Old Testament did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. By the first century B.C. a small number of Jews had come to accept the idea. In the Gospel it is clear that many religious leaders, such as the Sadducees, still rejected it. They bristled at Jesus' preaching about the resurrection of the dead and tried to disparage Him. Today's subtle attack mentioned in Saint Luke’s gospel account is prompted by an obscure law. If a man died without children, his brother had to marry the widow and have children by her. In posing this hypothetical situation, the Saduccees were trying to make a mockery of Jesus and to denigrate the concept of resurrection which, even though they rejected it, they saw as a mere continuance of this earthly reality.

The Sadducees, and many others before and after them, mistakenly presumed that life is merely the “here-and-now,” that there is nothing more than the memories of the living that keep one living on. But we know that  there is so much more. The Son of God has definitively testified to it and has revealed Himself as the source of that new life in eternal communion with the Most Blessed Trinity. Jesus reveals eternity as a new and transformative reality which does not destroy earthly relationships but changes them into something far beyond what we are used to on earth.

Since we look to eternal life, we learn that it is essential to order our lives―all that we do and say―toward the attainment of the Divine Love that will carry us into eternal life. Your primary vocation, dear friends, as Catholic Christians, gives shape to and informs every part of your personal and professional lives. Your desire for loving union with God shapes and informs your intimate communion with your spouse, children, friends and colleagues. But of course it does not stop there. In your professional lives you gladly recognize the wonderful gifts you have been given and the great responsibility you take on in caring for the sick, the broken, and the vulnerable. In turn you make a return to the Lord by carrying out your professional call with excellence and diligence, but also in charity and integrity. In this you are rightly held in high regard by the wider community, but of course the highest source of satisfaction comes in the realization of your fidelity to God, which flows from your love of God sustained by His grace.

There are many practitioners in the medical community, as well as many people who seek the aid of the health care community, who come to find themselves because of your faith. Your gathering here at the Lord’s table is not only a source of personal strength, but the presence of each of you is a powerful witness and source of strength to your colleagues. Often enough it has been expressed to me, and to many priests who carry out ministry to the sick and infirm, how much it meant to a patient or to the family members to find out that their attending physician or nurse is a person of faith. No, your role is not always the explicit proclamation of the Gospel message. Nevertheless, as Christians following the promptings of the Holy Spirit in your heart, and hearing utterances from the lips of patients and family members, you may often come easily upon those occasions to speak a word of faith or consolation at difficult times for patients, whether or not their physical prognosis is a good one.

Of course Christians must be sensitive to the needs the patient expresses, some of whom show anger toward God or reject Him outright.  It is much more in one’s disposition of charity, not in proselytizing―which the Church rejects as not being an authentic form of witness―that the gentle  voice of God can be heard.

Even in the medical community, there are some for whom any expression of faith is perceived to be irrational, an opiate or a delusion. Typically, their rejection comes simply in the form of a dismissive or indifferent posture. Yet sometimes in the name of care, in the name of autonomy, there are systematic pressures, even legal pressures, put on those in the medical community whose consciences forbid them to take an active role in the evils of abortion and euthanasia, in various forms of embryonic abuse and destruction, and in contraceptive practices. It is vitally important that communities like the Catholic Medical Association continue to do everything possible to preserve the integrity of the medical profession in general and in the personal practice of that profession.
 
Good results in the short term are not promised us, but if we remain faithful to the Lord, faithful to serving that true good of persons which is knowable by human reason and elevated by divine Revelation, we will be blessed now and in eternity. The brothers and their mother in the Second Book of Maccabees recognized the purpose of God’s gifts, to be used rightly and never to be abused. The third brother to suffer cruel sport put out his tongue and bravely held out his hands when he was ordered to do so. We are told that he spoke these noble words:“It was from heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.”We are called to have such obedience to God’s law that we place it at the highest premium, even at the expense of our lives. With God’s help such courage in righteous living and faithful love is indeed possible.   The author of the Book of Maccabees emphasized the effect that courage and fidelity had on others, as he said: “Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man's courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: you are shining lights, you are sons and daughters of God.  May He bless your lives, may He bless your good works, and may He always strengthen you to be leaders in your exhilarating vocation to heal, to serve and to uplift through love. This grace is not cheap, it comes at some cost; but guided in strength and love by the Holy Spirit, you will be fortified in your zealous care for those brothers and sisters who need your help, and you will be fortified in your obedience to the living God.

May Mary the Mother of the Incarnate Word, the Mother of Life be for all of you the cause of your joy.  Amen.