Heal Us, Divine Physician
Every year we change the gospel we read for the whole year
and this year we read from the Gospel of Luke.
We are coming to the end of this liturgical cycle called Cycle C
and we read from it today.
As the Bishop mentioned at the very beginning,
is also his actual feast day, the great Luke.
What a lot of people do not realize is that
Luke not only wrote Luke's Gospel,
but he also wrote the Acts of the Apostles,
which means he wrote about 25% of the New Testament.
Additionally, he was a disciple of Paul the Evangelist,
and was influenced by him ands vice versus.
Luke was one of the few who were there
when Paul died or when he was ready to be executed.
He was one of the faithful few that
remained with him in the prison at Rome.
But what is most important for today's celebration
is that he was also a physician.
Dr. Luke, as I always like to call him,
had a particular view that is seen in his gospels
and we see it even today.
That view is an incredibly compassionate way
to look at everyone he meets.
His gospel and his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles,
portray Jesus as the divine physician.
He has this look in the parables,
and you will note a couple of characteristics in this gospel.
The first is that he is the only one who has the Good Samaritan story.
He is the only one who has the Prodigal Son story.
These stories are not repeated in the other gospels,
they are unique to him.
It speaks of his compassion for the wounded,
the broken, the elderly, the outcasts.
He constantly is reaching out through Jesus.
He ministers to them, and that is how Jesus comes
to be known as the compassionate one.
The other part is, because he was with Paul,
he was with two audiences.
There is a very clearly Jewish audience,
but he is also preaching to a Gentile audience,
mirroring Paul’s reach out to all people.
But most importantly in my opinion is
that he is very gender sensitive.
When he tells a parable for the males
and then he will immediately give one for the females.
There is never a parable for only men,
always one for male, one for female.
For example, the lost sheep for the men,
then there is also the lost coin for the women.
There is the seed for the sower for the men
then the yeast in the dough for the women.
There is always one to go with the other.
This way of inclusion is incredible.
The people he includes are the ones on the fringes:
the broken, the wounded and the sick.
And that is why it seems so apropos for today
as we honor those who work in
the medical and health care profession.
These doctors and nurses and caregivers
who dedicate their lives to the service of others,
you are really doing the vocation of the physician, the divine physician.
You are an extension of the Lord's compassionate hand.
The question then is,
how do we continue to help you help others?
We are meant to be part of that same sort of extension.
How do we remain close to this divine physician,
this God who is always reaching out
and including the most excluded,
the broken, the wounded, the sick, the elderly.?
Time and time again,
Dr. Luke brings them back into the fold, every single time.
Many of you doctors and nurses have told me
so many of your stories over the years.
How it is exhausting work and
truly your faith is your strength in how you do it.
That is why so many of you keep coming back to Mass,
because it seems to be a rock for you
to nourish yourself here at the table.
Then you go back out into the world
to serve others through your compassionate hands.
That is the cycle of success.
This virtuous cycle of coming back to the table
and then giving yourself away.
But today's gospel reminds us
that there is something even deeper.
That we are called to pray always, not just on Sundays.
That this commitment, this dedication to a life of discipleship
requires us to remain close to Christ
in a deliberate and profound way.
This is why he says,
"Pray always without ceasing."
It is a refrain we hear over and over again in all of Luke,
but also in all of Saint Paul.
Much of the entire New Testament reminds us
how we are called to remain faithful to the Lord in our prayer.
Jesus gives a radical example here in this gospel.
This widow who is seeking justice.
And sometimes we are tempted to read into this is
that she is manipulating the judge, but she is not.
She is steadfast.
She remains completely unmoved by his lack of movement.
So that requires us to be called to persistence,
this what the Lord is reminding us here.
Persistence in our prayer life,
and the foundation of persistence is faithfulness.
The foundation of faithfulness is trust.
The foundation of trust is faith itself.
Each of you who are a medical professional
are the hands and the feet of so many different places.
We honor you because your faith is the foundation,
it is helping you do that.
But remain close to the Lord in prayer.
That in your most difficult days
when you are just exasperated and
things just seem to be all falling apart.
Your patients die or get sicker not better,
and you get weary.
We must always remember
to keep coming back to the Lord in prayer.
Your ministry is not always measured by success,
but that it is measured by perseverance
and faithfulness and trust and faith.
In the end, like Dr. Luke, so many of you
are the only ones there when somebody takes their last breath.
Like Dr. Luke, you were the faithful one who remained.
As the bishop mentioned earlier about the COVID years,
you are the ones who stayed at the task,
risking your own health, serving others, even ungrateful others,
and you kept showing up weary and broken and exhausted.
And so yes, we honor you,
but we encourage you to
continue to remain steadfast to the Lord,
as we all are called.
Another great saint whose feast day
we celebrate this week is Saint Teresa of Avila,
the mystic of the 16th century,
and one of my favorite saints.
She was famous for and constantly encouraging
all the people around her, who are mostly sisters,
but also the great Saint John of the Cross,
was encouraged always to be prayer.
For her, this was not a transaction, it was a relationship.
This prayer requires of us to stay in relationship.
She had this beautiful prayer
that has become famous called Nada Te Turbe.
It says,
"Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing make you afraid.
All things are passing.
God alone never changes."
That is why we keep showing up with the Lord.
Thank you for the gift of your hands
and your heart for healing others.
Thank you for being there in their last breath.
Thank you for being the presence of Christ, the divine physician.
Know that your healing makes a difference.
Your presence is what brings the healing into being.
We all need that, and we all need to be part of that enterprise.
Because in the end, you see,
the Lord is a divine physician
and he sees our sins as wounds needing to be healed.
And that is what he comes to do, to heal us
and to give us his forgiveness and his divine love,
which heals all things.
I want to close by dedicating this song.
It is a beautiful song written by a good friend of mine,
Father Liam Lawton.
He is Irish, and he writes beautiful Celtic Irish music.
He has been a herald of beautiful music for decades,
and now he himself is very ill.
In visiting him just a few weeks ago in Ireland,
he realized that he will never sing again.
He will never play a piano again,
and he will probably will never be able to preside at Mass again.
And so this song, his song,
I dedicate it both to him, who will be watching,
but also to all of you who are
the hands and the feet of the healing divine physician
who promises to heal us.
In our calling, stumbling and falling,
your truth dawning, heal us, Lord.
In our yearning, searching, discerning,
wisdom learning, heal us,
Heal us Lord.
Heal us Lord.
Heal us Lord.
May your word renew us.
May your touch restore us.
Heal us Lord.
In division, hate and derision, blinded vision.
Heal us Lord.In hearts broken,
harsh words are spoken, empty tokens.
Heal us Lord. Heal us Lord.
Heal us Lord. Heal us Lord.
May your word renew us.
May your touch restore us.
Heal us Lord.
In our grieving, fragile believing, hope receiving.
Heal us Lord.
In our rising, living and dying, love abiding.
Heal us Lord. Heal us Lord.
Heal us Lord. Heal us Lord.
May your word renew us.
May your touch restore us.
Heal us Lord.