Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, priest

Lectionary: 437

I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his Body, which is the Church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.

Several years ago, I attended a public lecture by a local cardiologist. The talk was given to members of a nearby fitness club; nearly everyone in the room invested time and money working with weights, treadmills and other aerobic devices. 

I heard an audible gasp in the room when the doctor said not one in fifty of his patients walk more than a quarter mile daily for the sole purpose of exercise. 

But the room was more silent when he said the Baby Boom generation would crush the American medical system like an elephant stepping on a mosquito. We should, he said, expect a catastrophe.

That was more than ten years ago and we are now watching the catastrophe unfold. Discussing a universal health insurance plan for all Americans is rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic. We cannot afford our own health care. Nor do we have enough trained doctors, nurses, technicians and support staff to care for our elderly, sick and dying patients. Nor are Americans willing to cease their self-abusive habits of idleness, over-eating, smoking, and alcohol consumption. We are not even willing to import low wage workers for our nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Meanwhile the news media is shocked! shocked! when someone with an unusual, barely understood ailment cannot afford the exorbitant cost of experimental medicine.  

Aging spouses, adult children and -- in some cases -- parents must take up the slack, caring for those who cannot sustain their independence any longer. Many wives and husbands, who are in fact the patient's latest, current spouse in a long series, finding themselves overwhelmed with inadequate resources, will abandon the sick to their doom. 

Our experiment in freedom -- defined as "doing what I want to do regardless of anyone else" -- is coming to its predictable conclusion. 

Could this crisis have been avoided? 

Not entirely. 

Human beings would not be on this lonely planet if we did not care for one another. From prehistoric times, our medicines, surgeries, and therapies are built into our genetic code. No other creature on our planet has developed such methods for survival. When wild animals get sick they recover or they die. If others of the same species care, as elephants and whales might, they can only watch. When one of our own gets sick we go into action, rallying all kinds of intelligence and energy to aid, assist and recover the individual. 

Our medical arts are primary, not secondary, to human existence. They are not unfortunately necessary; they are what we do. 

Hatred is unnecessary; war is unnatural. But caring for one another is why we're here. 

If the present crisis is borne of our success in caring for one another, so be it!

But that modern life should not hurt as premodern life did, that all suffering can be remedied, that painful sacrifices are not demanded of everyone -- these expectations are simply foolish.  

In today's first reading, Saint Paul embraces his suffering in the Spirit of Jesus. He does not indulge in self-pity; he doesn't plead with his friends to make every effort to deliver him from his predicament. He doesn't complain, "This isn't fair." 

He teaches us a way out of our predicament. We will care for one another. When we are afflicted; and when we must make extraordinary sacrifices of time, treasure and talent; we will not moan, "Why me?" But we'll declare in the Spirit of Jesus, "Why not me?"