General Information Programme and texts of the Congress Conclusions

Website: http://www.fiamc.org TEXTS OF THE CONGRESS FROM IDENTITY TO MISSION John K.P. HUI The Catholic Medical Guild of Singapore The topic for my talk today is "From identity to mission". Having heard so much from our previous eminent speakers, I have decided that what I shall do is to run through the salient points of the topic, and then talk about something which I feel is very important, that is, finding the means to sustain us in our mission as Catholic doctors. Through baptism, we "the lay faithful are made one body with Christ and are established among the People of God." We are in our own way "made sharers in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ." We, "together with all the other members of the Church, are branches engrafted to Christ the true vine and from Him derive our life and fruitfulness."1 (Christifidelis Laici, No. 9, Who are the lay faithful). Our particular identity as Catholic doctors therefore is to be like Christ to our patients. In fact, I should say, we should BE CHRIST to our patients, and indeed to the whole of humanity. As our Holy Father has said before, "Doctors, nurses, other workers in the world of health, and volunteers are called upon to be the alive image of Christ and of His Church in love towards the sick and the suffering: witnesses of the 'Gospel of Life'" 2. So it is that we must draw our identity from Christ. Let us now examine the image of Christ in relation to our identity as Catholic medicos. Jesus, truly God and truly Man, is Love. He could not be anything else to all those around Him. The love He exuded during His earthly life was so infinite, so intimate and so palpable that even the apparently "unconvertible" became converted. People like Mary Magdalene, Matthew the tax collector, and my favourite character in the Bible, the little guy called Zacchaeus. They were so touched by the love of Christ that they made dramatic turnarounds in their lives. What about us? Do we show that unconditional love of Jesus to our patients? Or do we dismiss them and give them up as "no-hopers", such as drug addicts, alcoholics, sex-addicts, or even the simple chronic smokers whom we have been counseling so hard to quit the habit? At this point though, I would like to stress the point that while Jesus was full of love for the sinner, He always made the clear distinction that He did not condone the sin. Remember when He saved the adulterous woman from being stoned, He said, "Neither do I condemn you." But He did not stop there. He went on to say, "Go, and sin no more." (John 8:11) He said it with firmness, but it was a firmness borne of love. Yes, in the fullness of His infinite love, Jesus showed the beauty of His compassion, gentleness, generosity, honesty, humility, and submissiveness to the will of the Father. These are so relevant and necessary to us if we are to identify ourselves as Catholic doctors First of all: compassion. Jesus, God and Master, always felt for people, and He suffered WITH them in their pain and dejection. Remember how sorry He felt for the crowds that followed Him when He realized they were like sheep without a shepherd (cf Mt 9:36)? Remember when Jesus first met Martha and Mary after receiving the news that Lazarus His beloved friend had died? His response was a sigh that came straight from His heart, then He wept (John 11:33-36). It was not just His healing powers that touched the people He healed It was also His compassion, which we are all called to imitate. Because of His compassion, He healed patients not just of their physical illnesses, but he healed their total being &endash; not just the physical, but also the emotional, and spiritual pains that they were going through. We too are called to see in each of our patients not just the physical illness, but rather the totality of the human person. We are challenged to heal everyone not just in body, but also in mind and spirit. "Shoulder my yoke and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Mt 11:29) The invitation of Christ to imitate Him in these qualities continues to reverberate in our hearts today. Gentleness as we care for our patients and humility to acknowledge that it is not us, but Jesus who heals through us. Sharing with others the generosity of our time is one sure way of predisposing others to be more open to the Good News of Chris as He wants it shared through us. So too our honesty. How can our patients trust us if we do not speak the truth? When lived to the full, our identity as Catholic doctors should be seen in every aspect of our existence. All the people who deal with us or know us in one way or another should be able to sense Jesus within us. We must act in such a way that others will be able to say, when they come into contact with us: this person is a Catholic doctor, because he exudes professional integrity, because he is compassionate, gentle, humble, because he is generous with his time, because he loves. There can be no greater compliment than for a disciple to be identified with His Master. I shall now examine our mission as Catholic doctors. For this, I would like to take our reflection from the Gospel of Luke 4:18-19: "The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight." "The spirit of the Lord has been given to me." We thank God for the vocation He has given us as Catholic medicos. As He has said, "You did not choose me, no, I chose you." (Jn 15:16) The responsibility is awesome, the work at hand enormous, but He has indeed promised us His Spirit, and as long as we remain open to His Spirit, we can be assured of His strength and wisdom. "Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations" (Mt 28:19). "And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time." (Mt 28:20) How comforting it is to know that the Lord is always with us, even or especially so when we are treating our patients! "He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor." Here I'm sure the Lord does not just want us to bring His Good News to the materially poor. On the contrary I would dare say many of those who are materially poor but so trusting in the providence of God often have more good news to share with me than I with them! No. I would take that the poor here refer to those who are physically, emotionally and spiritually "poor". As Rev Bonifacio Honings, Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, once said, "The sick person is never or at least should never be a simple clinical case which should be examined "scientifically". He is always a person who is in special need &endash; because he is sick &endash; of sympathy or perhaps of empathy" 3. The physically poor are those who are physically sick and infirm. Those who are emotionally poor are those deprived of love and support of people around them, and those who are spiritually poor, are those who have been ignorant, by choice or otherwise, of the love and teachings of our Lord. We have been trained to care for the physically poor, but I suspect many of us, myself included, will be found rather wanting in our ability and desire to heal those who are emotionally and especially spiritually sick. What is the Good News that we are called to bring to the poor? It is the Good News of God Himself who is Love. We can share it by our "readiness to help, attention, understanding, sharing, benevolence, patience and dialogue."4 It certainly is not easy, but I think we can do it using the three P's &endash; practice, perseverance and prayer. "To proclaim liberty to captives." I am sure we have come across many who are under bondage in one way or other, suffering from some form of addiction which has plagued them and incapacitated them considerably. Those who are addicted to alcohol, drugs, even those who are suffering from various forms of sexual addictions, are crying out for help and deserve our compassion. Again, here I would like to stress the totality of the human person presenting to us in such a dilemma. I remember once when I saw a young male patient who had a problem of penile and anal warts. He was not only a sexually active homosexual, but also had a very troubled past and was also later found to have been possessed by some unclean spirits. I only found out about it after referring him to a psychiatrist and then a priest. This young man will always remain in my memory, reminding me of the need to heal a patient of any and every bondage he or she may be under. "And to the blind new sight". If we are to be Christ for others, we have to be light of the world. We have been given the light of truth by our Lord through His Holy Catholic Church. We must let this light shine in the world we live in, so that those who are blinded from the truth in one way or other will see again, through the grace of God. Our Lord Himself has told us, "What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops." (Mt 10:27) Today, more than ever before, with the world blinded by sins against human dignity, manifested in the loss of respect for the unity of marriage and the dignity of procreation, as well as a profound disregard for the sanctity of life at its beginning and at its end, both at the personal and at governmental levels, this task is even more urgent. Let us rally to the call of the Holy Father when he said, "There have arisen delicate and grave problems of an ethical nature, concerning which the Church and Christians must courageously and lucidly intervene to safeguard essential values and rights connected with the dignity and the supreme destiny of the human person." 5 It is to be expected though that persecution in some way or other is not uncommon when we attempt to "be the light of the world". Yet let us take comfort in the assurance of our Lord, "If anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven." (Mt 10:32) I now come to what I feel is the main part of the topic, finding the means to sustain us in our identity and mission as catholic doctors. For our reflection, I would like to draw on the rich words proclaimed by the Holy Father in his Apostolic Letter "Novo Millennio Ineunte &endash; At the beginning of the new millenium" 6 which was issued on 6 Jan 2001 on the feast of the Epiphany. Pope John Paul II began his letter with the words of Jesus when He invited Simon Peter to "put out into the deep", "Duc in altum" (Lk 5:4). When Simon Peter responded to the Lord's invitation, he and his companions "caught a great number of fish" (Lk 5:6). The Holy Father, in a later part of his letter, commented that our mission "has its centre in Christ Himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in Him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with Him transform history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem." 7 He then went on to state what was needed for our "exciting work of revitalization". First of all: holiness. St Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians said, "This is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Th 4:3). In Matthew 5:48, our Lord Himself challenges us, "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect". So holiness is not for just a select few. It is for all of us who call ourselves Christians. This has been affirmed strongly by the Church in Lumen Gentium, "All the Christian faithful, of whatever state or rank, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity." 8 "The ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual." 9 "Holiness, then, must be called a fundamental presupposition and an irreplaceable condition for everyone in fulfilling the mission of salvation within the Church." (Christifideles Laici, No 17, The Life of Holiness in the World) So we should not be afraid of being branded "holy". It only means that we are answering our baptismal call to enter into the life of holiness, a life of union with the Holy Trinity. The second thing needed for our mission: prayer. Prayer cannot be taken for granted. Prayer develops that conversation with Christ which makes us his intimate friends: "Abide in me and I in you" (Jn 15:4). This is "the very substance and soul of the Christian life, and the condition of all true pastoral life." 10 Without an active prayer life, it will be so easy to run ourselves dry just doing the task of our Lord, while forgetting all about the Lord of our task. Our motivation, our strength will dissipate in no time. The Holy Father then declared that our Christian communities must become genuine "schools" of prayer, where the meeting with Christ is expressed not just in imploring help but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotion, until the heart truly "falls in love" 10. By opening our hearts to the love of God, prayer also opens us to the love of our brothers and sisters, and makes us capable of shaping history according to God's plan. Do we make prayer a central activity in our catholic medical societies? On our part, in answer to the Holy Father's call, the Catholic Medical Guild of Singapore is trying to do this. We have actually printed out little prayer cards which we use to pray on a personal basis and when we gather for group meetings. You should find this prayer card already distributed to you at your table. At this juncture, I would like to stress that prayer is not just a "one way traffic" whereby we talk to God only, but a "two way traffic" in which we also listen quietly and obediently to Him who speaks to us in our hearts, in His Word and in His Church. Otherwise instead of us saying "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening," (1 Sam 3: 10) it will be more like "Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking!" Now for the central point of Catholic worship, the Eucharist, "the summit towards which the Church's action tends at the same time the source from which comes all her strength". 11 The Eucharist "gathers Christians together as God's family round the table of the Word and the Bread of Life", and being the source of our unity in the Body of Christ, is "the most natural antidote to dispersion". 12 The Holy Father insists that "sharing in the Eucharist should really be the heart of Sunday for every baptized person. It is a fundamental duty, to be fulfilled not just in order to observe a precept but as something felt as essential to a truly informed and consistent Christian life." 12 "Jesus Christ, who gives Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist, is utterly indispensable as nourishment for us. Without Him we very soon fall into an extreme state of weakness." 13 St Thomas Aquinas tells us that the effect of this sacrament is "the conversion of man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in Him." 14 Isn't this the essence of our mission &endash; to be Christ to the world? Shouldn't we then try to go one step further, and go for Holy Mass on a daily basis, so that we can be continually strengthened by Him who is our source and our goal? Another priority that the Holy Father has recommended for our mission is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The regular reception of this sacrament will not just counter the crisis of "the sense of sin" apparent in today's culture, but also help us rediscover Christ as the One in whom God shows His compassionate heart and reconcile us fully with Himself. 15 Many spiritual directors recommend going for confession at least once a month, if not weekly. I can almost hear those barely audible moans and groans, "What? Regular confession? I would feel too embarrassed!" But let us remember that the dear priest is not there to judge or condemn us. He is there as a channel of God's infinite love and grace, the Father who is always on the lookout, waiting so anxiously to welcome us with open arms back into His life of grace. His grace is truly what we need for our mission. This leads us to our next priority &endash; the primacy of Grace. We cannot fulfill our mission without His grace. "There is a temptation which perennially besets every spiritual journey and pastoral work: that of thinking that the results depend on our ability to act and to plan. God of course asks us really to cooperate with His grace, and therefore invites us to invest all our resources of intelligence and energy in serving the cause of the Kingdom. But it is fatal to forget that 'without Christ we can do nothing' (cf Jn 15:5). It is prayer which roots us in this truth. It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with Him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness". 16 Working without Christ's grace, we will be repeating the words of Simon, "We have toiled all night and caught nothing." (Lk 5:5). But when we turn to Christ, listen to His promptings in prayer, and say to our Lord, "At your word I will let down the nets" (Lk 5:5), we can be sure that our work will be blessed with an abundant catch. And when the catch is indeed plentiful, let us never forget that it is the Lord who is the one behind it, not us who are merely His instruments. "Does the axe claim more credit than the man who wields it, or the saw more strength than the man who handles it?" (Isaiah 10:13) Finally, in order to preach the Good News, we must be strong in our foundation and knowledge of what the Good News is, besides always striving to improve on our professional competence. Otherwise we shall be sharing the wrong news with others. How can we grow in our knowledge of the Good News? We can do this by listening intently, consistently, to the Word of God in the Bible and in the rich teachings of the Holy Catholic Church. As the Holy Father remarked, "There is no doubt that this primacy of holiness and prayer is inconceivable without a renewed listening to the word of God." 17 At this juncture I would like to reflect on a virtue that I have struggled with for a long time, and still do: humility. This is especially so when one discusses the teaching authority of the Church. The Church as our Mother is guiding us always with Her constant and infallible teaching bestowed upon Her through the Magisterium. Certainly there are teachings that some of us may not understand or feel comfortable with even. Yet, do we think that just because it does not seem to correspond to our extremely limited human thinking we should not accept them? We must remember that to enter the kingdom of God, we must be like little children. As Jesus said, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 18:3) And then again, "I bless you Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children." (Mt 11:25) What is the attitude of a child? The child is totally trusting in the goodness and knowledge of his parents. He will absorb and accept everything that his parents tell him. Sometimes he may ask why, or in the case of my children, very often they will ask why. When an explanation is given, he may understand it or because he is not mature enough, he may not. But he will accept the teaching authority of his parents. As time passes by and the child matures, he will gradually understand these teachings and then he will appreciate the wisdom behind these teachings. We too are like little children in the faith. While we may not understand some teachings of Mother Church, we should be humble enough to accept all of them like little children. As we grow in our faith and broaden our knowledge, we may then gradually understand the beauty and richness of her teachings. I say "may", because there are some teachings we may never understand with our human minds until we meet our Lord face to face on judgement day. In conclusion, I would like once again to take the words of the Holy Father in His Apostolic letter 'Novo Millenio Ineunte', "Let us go forward in hope! A new millenium is opening before the Church like a vast ocean upon which we shall venture, relying on the help of Christ. The Son of God, who became incarnate two thousand years ago out of love for humanity, is at work even today: we need discerning eyes to see this and, above all, a generous heart to become the instruments of His work." 18 We must realize that our vitality as fruit bearing branches depends on our remaining attached to the vine, which is Jesus Christ: Let us remember what He told us: "He who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). References 1. Christifidelis Laici, No. 9, Who are the lay faithful 2. Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care workers, Charter for Health Care workers (Vatican City, 1995), fourth edition, no. 1 3. Rev Bonifacio Honings, "The Charter for Health Care Workers: A synthesis of Hippocratic Ethics and Christian Morality." 4. Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, Charter for Health Care Workers (Vatican City, 1995), fourth edition, 2. 5. "Dolentium Hominum &endash; establishing Pontifical Commission for the Apostolate of Health Care Workers" &endash; Feb 11, 1985 6. Novo Millennio Ineunte (NMI), Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II, 6th January 2001, Feast of the Epiphany. 7. NMI 29 8. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution of the Church Lumen Gentium, 40 9. NMI 31 10. NMI 32 11. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10. 12. NMI 36 13. In Conversation with God, Vol 6, 46.3 14. St Thomas, Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences, d 12, q 2, a 11 15. NMI 37 16. NMI 38 17. NMI 39 18. NMI 58