When you love people, you see all the good in them, all the Christ in them. God sees Christ, His Son, in us and loves us. And so we should see Christ in others, and nothing else, and love them. There can never be enough of it. There can never be enough thinking about it. St. John of the Cross said that where there was no love, put love and you would take out love.
Dorothy Day
On Pilgrimage
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we had a known crack-addicted prostitute as a patient a few weeks ago. she has been pregnant numerous times and has always had her babies, even though none of them are with her and were all given up for adoption i believe through the state.
i remembered her name and found out we delivered her last baby early this past summer. she is pregnant again and was in due to complications most likely attributed to her chronic and persistent drug use. one of the nurses that had been given this patient as part of her assignment said she didn't know if she could "morally do a good job taking care of her," based on the reasons stated herein. there was an on-going discussion at the desk with the other nurses and finally, i was asked how i felt about the situation. all i said was "we don't know where she is in her process, in her life, what her life is like...it would be really easy to judge her just knowing what we know on paper and based on what she said in her history. the harder thing i think we are called to do is to take care of her as best we can and offer it up as an act of prayer. i doubt she will get any better care anywhere else...just keep praying," and with that, i walked off to distribute linens and introduce myself to my patients.
what i found out during the course of my day was this: she enjoys watching game shows and the show CSI; she wears glasses and cares about washing up and cleaning her teeth...she drank a lot of water and enjoyed gingerale. she seemed much younger than her mid-30's and felt pain for what she was going through, what she has put her baby through. and yeah, has a crack cocaine addiction and felt shame about it.
there is so much more i could say about my experience, but i will end with this: she was actually one of the easiest patients i have ever had to care for.
And so we should see Christ in others, and nothing else, and love them.
6 comments:
Sounds like grace is contagious.
:)
I don't know anything about Dorothy Day, but I know you.
Dorothy Day, yes and Catherine Doherty and Henri Nouwen to name but a few.
Your story recalls beautifully the very words of St. Paul from 2nd Reading this past Sunday; I Corinthians 12:31-13:4-13 "...without love, we each are just a big, lame, noise." The New Luminousmiseries Version ;-)
Amen Penni.
It reminds me of the pharisee and the publican. An eternal truth.
Or you could cut to the chase. Matt. 25 doesn't really say why you should visit the sick or offer a cup of water; only that the person you are serving is Christ. We like to think that our offered help, assistance, gov't programs, etc. will change people, but they often don't.
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