In the name of the Supreme Healer, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Good Morning , and a Happy New Year to all of you!

I have always visually loved the Gospel for today – Jesus stands up and takes the position of authority telling the assembly in the synagogue who he is. He claims his birthright saying “Here I am and this is what I’m going to do”.

And then he goes out and does it as witnessed by the Gospels, and in this retelling by Luke, Jesus tells us what to do, too. This is what is expected of us – to recognize our spiritual gifts and go forth and use them.

So, how did I come to be a member of the healing arts? I arrived in the US at the age of 22, told Northeastern University in Boston that I wanted to become a student there whereupon they told me to take the SAT exam the following Saturday and get a vocational test at their testing center. I showed up to take the SAT clueless as to its import, or that I should actually study for it, passed fairly well considering I’d been out of school for 3 years, and vocationally was told I could be a nun, which at 22 did not appeal, a doctor, (too many years of study), a teacher (the thought of which scared me), or a nurse which did appeal.

Today I’ve been a nurse for 30 years practicing in many fields. My latest vocation has been in hospice nursing.

How I wandered down this path began with my exposure to dedicated and faithful healers in Chile and South Africa. In Chile we used to go out to a small town now famous for its telescopes – San Pedro de Atacama. A family friend operated a small monthly clinic out of the guest house we stayed in. When word got around that Doctor Bradford was coming, the neighborhood became full of patients who waited days and walked miles to wait for a turn to see him. My sister and I were allowed to help by the time we were 7 and 8 with minor jobs that made us feel very special.

Similarly in South Africa I assisted at a Bantu clinic when I was 13 and 14 years old, and witnessed women who had walked miles barefoot to see the doctors who opened the bush clinic once a month. In particular I remember one little boy who had fallen into a cook fire and had severe burns on one side of his body. He must have been in enormous pain after walking miles with his mother to get there, but stood stoically and silently while being examined. His mother was given an antibiotic salve for the burns and asked to come back the next month. This was the only time all these people could get medical care. It was a blessing to them that there were dedicated healers willing to come out to the bush once a month and work 2 long, long days to help people who normally and without this clinic would never get medical care.

A couple of years later at an Anglican boarding school in Johannesburg I was exposed to the Gospels. I started reading about some of the healing miracles Jesus performed. I was struck at the time with the similarity between the environments I had witnessed in Chile and South Africa where the crowds gathered to be healed just as they had in ancient Palestine. Doctor Bradford, in Chile, the volunteer physicians in South Africa and Jesus were similar in that their focus was on the relief of pain and suffering. To the patients in Chile and South Africa the physicians were miracle workers every bit as much as Jesus was. Without these faithful workers acting as the hands and feet of Christ they would have had no physical healing. I felt called to follow in their footsteps, to be a healer just as they were, but was frightened by the idea of my own inadequacy – the inadequacy of my faith, and my knowledge. I addressed the knowledge factor by studying. The faith factor developed along with the practice of being a nurse and the teachings of my patients, from whom I learned much. But I’m getting ahead of my story.

I know I used these experiences in foreign lands as part of my entrance letter into the University Of Arizona School Of Nursing – oh, yes….I had moved by then back to Arizona after my father bribed me with free tuition…. I was certain my life was to be in the healing arts and prayed that they would accept me, which they did. I also studied to become a certified nursing assistant and worked at University Medical Center while studying. It was a wonderful way to learn, and humbling to take care of the patients, some of whom suffered from terrible illnesses, but who spoke of the sustaining strength of their faith and the joy they had in the simple, little things that helped them deal with their suffering. They were wonderful teachers of what really matters in life, and I am grateful to each of them for the lessons they taught me. They were angelic teachers. My saddest experience was with an elderly lymphoma patient who died on our unit with no family at her side. There was no one left for her. Our head nurse told us that one of us was to be with her during the night. I decided during that night of sitting vigil with her that none of my patients would ever die alone, even if it meant having to work overtime without pay. This was probably the beginning of my calling to be a hospice nurse. She was an angel in my life and I am grateful to her for her lesson.

Jesus in the Gospel for today states, quoting from Isaiah, that he comes to bring good news to the poor, to release the captives, to recover the sight of the blind and to let the oppressed go free. What Isaiah had promised, Jesus is fulfilling. Jesus also did not only free people from their physical suffering but focused too on their spiritual and emotional suffering.

This is the call of a nurse – to free the patient from physical and emotional pain in as much as we are able – we intercede on their behalf when they aren’t able to do so, in essence to be the hands and feet of Christ. Those of us who are Christian nurses have a deeper well from which to draw for sustenance in our sometimes very difficult jobs. Our faith speaks to that power of healing into which we can all tap. Jesus called his healings “works” not miracles. Our work is healing – if we look at our hands, we look at the hands of Christ in the world today. Our actions are those that Christ would have us do. As I make my rounds on my patients I pray before I enter each door. I am mindful that each person with whom I come into contact is that unknown angel that will bring me a blessing of some kind, and I hope to be as much a blessing to them.

In hospice nursing there is no cure for the physical ailment from which the patient suffers. What we offer is comfort, love, acceptance, and kindness. We meet each patient where they are physically and emotionally, we accept them for who they are, we alleviate their suffering which may not all be physical, and bring comfort to them and their family. We have had patients who were not at all ready to die and leave this earthly life. We have had angry patients and angry families at how unfair this whole dealing with dying can be.

If the family is too noisy and having a good time seeing each other after many years apart, the patient struggles to stay around and be part of that party. We had one gentleman whose heart and respirations stopped three times before the family, with our encouragement, told him it was OK to leave – they would all take care of each other, and love each other. They were then able to settle into a quiet vigil and the patient was able to peacefully and comfortably die without struggle. The family became the healers. They brought comfort, reassurance and peace to the patient. So too, nurses are teachers.

I tell you this story to bring you to the idea that you too are a healer. You may not feel it as you’ve not trained to be in the medical field, but you have skills to bring healing. You smile at a stranger, and that heals the loneliness in a soul, you thank someone who has served you whether in a restaurant or store, and you raise that person’s sense of self worth in that you noticed that they had done a good job, you look at the forgotten people that we walk by every day as if they are invisible, and that look into their eyes brings healing in recognition – they are seen.

Eye contact is powerfully healing – really looking at the homeless guy or gal selling newspapers and acknowledging that they are human is not going to heal their addiction, but it does let them know that they are visible. The elderly, too, suffer from being invisible – too often they are making their way slowly down the aisles of the grocery store or down the road in front of us as they carefully navigate our wicked Tucson streets, and it is our sense of being in a hurry that makes them an impediment. Remember that they were once young and able to hurry along, and that we too will one day drive slowly and carefully because that is how we keep ourselves and others safe.

The physically handicapped ask us to not treat them as invisible – some of them really just need eye contact and a smile to make a difference in their day! You are healers. Those of us who are in the healing arts have book learning that sets us apart, but does not separate us from the basic art of healing – a look, a smile, sometimes a touch, or a wave, all are a simple acknowledgement of humanness, a reminder to them, and to us that they merit dignity. And, in the words of our Baptismal Covenant we are all called, and I quote:

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving
                 your neighbor as yourself?

And we respond:

I will, with God’s help.

And again:

Will you strive for justice and peace among all
                 people, and respect the dignity of every human
                 being?

To which we respond:

I will, with God’s help.

I like the last one especially – respecting the dignity of every human being. You are not called to love everyone – that is probably only the department of the Divine, but we are called to respect the dignity of everyone.

I would like to read you this quote which appeared on December 26^th in the Forward Day by Day that I receive in my email:

Quote:

We rejoice that Jesus was born to dwell among us and show us what separates us from God, what splits us apart from one another, and what divides us from ourselves. Jesus lived, taught, healed, challenged, and proclaimed the love of God in such a way that it turned the world upside down. That is our challenge as well.

End quote.

Let’s go out there and turn someone else’s world upside down by treating them as humans and the angels that they are to us – education does not separate us from the gift of healing. Our faith by its very nature calls us all to be healers. You have the tools, your smile, your hands, your feet and your words.

Amen!