LOVE WITHOUT BOUNDRIES

February 11 is World Day for the Sick (Catholic tradition), an observation started by St. John Paul II as a way for us to offer support and prayers for those suffering from illnesses. To think about people who are no long active because of physical weakness and suffering.  It is a day we pray and support those who suffer from illness and for their caregivers. It was first observed on February 11, 1993. February 11 is also the Catholic Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, whose name is given to the Virgin Mary in honor of the apparitions that were said to have been seen in and around Lourdes, France, by a young girl called Bernadette Soubirous. The Church canonized Bernadette as a saint several years later.

My aim is not really to give the historical background of this day. I prefer we think of many people who are sick in the hospitals and those who have died because they have no means of going to the hospital. I think and pray for those who die in silence and isolation because of lack of financial help. Sickness put an end to dreams. It shortens our lives and projects.

We are useful from birth till death.

We are still useful even when we are on sick beds, wounded by human sufferings and some uncertainties of life. People who are sick and weak need our presence and assistance. To accompany the sick is not only meant for believers.  It’s religious; it’s human to care for sick people. Our positive attitudes towards the sick give dignity to the human person despite his physical condition. We do this because sickness has no boundaries. Believers fall sick and non believers also fall sick either by growing old or my situations of life. What we need most when we are sick is that “Healing presence of people around us”, people who are there to comfort, to give hope and that sense of family care. Today people die not only of old age. People commit suicide not only because life is unbearable but because of isolation and abandon.

I had a chance of working in the hospital (Pastoral of the sick) caring for the sick people. I was challenged by human suffering and sickness.  People ask questions and question trying to make meaning out of human suffering and sickness. I remember Theresa who was asking me while crying on her sick bed: “Fr! Why me, but why me? What have I done wrong in life? I was silent, crying within me and asking God the same question within me. I did not want to attempt answering Theresa’s questions. These were existential questions but I had no good response for her. I was satisfied that I was there trying to feel with her and to offer some help to her. Today, Theresa is at peace with her Lord. She was accompanied, she was considered even on her difficult moment. In the same clinic I saw people sneezing and coughing, others are on drips hanging for hours, some have food around them but have no appetite. Others are there awaiting interventions while others just arrive to pick their dead bodies. It is a painful experience but we have to be caregivers, people who give life and hope to the sick.

In his speech, Pope Francis has clearly mentioned the presence of the church in the pastoral care for the sick:

“The Church’s maternal vocation to the needy and to the sick has found concrete expression throughout the two thousand years of her history in an impressive series of initiatives on behalf of the sick. This history of dedication must not be forgotten. It continues to the present day throughout the world. In countries where adequate public health care systems exist, the work of Catholic religious congregations and dioceses and their hospitals is aimed not only at providing quality medical care, but also at putting the human person at the centre of the healing process, while carrying out scientific research with full respect for life and for Christian moral values. In countries where health care systems are inadequate or non-existent, the Church seeks to do what she can to improve health, eliminate infant mortality and combat widespread disease. Everywhere she tries to provide care, even when she is not in a position to offer a cure. The image of the Church as a “field hospital” that welcomes all those wounded by life is a very concrete reality, for in some parts of the world, missionary and diocesan hospitals are the only institutions providing necessary care to the population.”

Our Attitude towards sick people

What I have always admired in Pope Francis is his deep faith and leadership qualities. The Roman pontiff puts people in the center of the gospel. Here he comes again in his speech for the world day for the sick: putting the human person at the centre of the healing process….. Respect for life and for Christian moral values. Our attitude towards the sick must aim at sustaining life and saving life. Some theological explanation of human suffering and death are not really the starting point in front of a sick and dying patient. At times we are limited, unable to explain the mystery of suffering and death. Questions, interrogations addressed to sick people are not really important at that moment of despair. Tendencies to see sufferings and sicknesses as a result of our own deliberate sin is judgmental and not important in front of the sick. This attitude creates more wounds in the life of the sick.

Accompany the sick.

Sick people need to be accompanied and assisted. This legacy of the past says the pope should “helps us to build a better future, for example, by shielding Catholic hospitals from the business mentality that is seeking worldwide to turn health care into a profit-making enterprise, which ends up discarding the poor. Wise organization and charity demand that the sick person be respected in his or her dignity, and constantly kept at the centre of the therapeutic process. This should likewise be the approach of Christians who work in public structures; through their service, they too are called to bear convincing witness to the Gospel”.

No to the culture of Exclusion.

People are not tools or utilities that are useful for a particular purpose and   thrown away when it cannot no longer perform. Man is not a machine to be used and dump. Man/woman whose life begins from births and ends by death (Not forced or helped to terminate his life) is needed when he is active as a youth and when he is less active in his elderly age. He is useful and needed when he is sick and when he is in good health. I believe love means COMMITMENT FOR LIFE. This commitment has no limit, it is for life.  We love with doubts, positive attitude but also with the weaknesses of the other person. We love when we are physically well and even when we are on wheel chairs. Sick people or those mentally challenged are not strangers, they are not half-humans, they are not burdens to the society. Our elders who are growing old are not burdens; they are never unwanted objects to be excluded from our discussions, from out meetings, from our families. I remember sharing with a friend on how we treat the sick. In some families, sick people are at times closed in doors; we feel disturbed by their presence. At times we give them “special places” isolated in the same family.

They are our brothers and sisters in need of our presence and healing touches. Exclusion kills, it kills psychologically and finally physically. They die at times before time. They die not because of disease but mostly because of isolation, mistreatment, exclusion and stigmatization. Be a caregiver, give hope and support to a sick friend today.

Peter EKUTT