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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1987)
20 Page 2 • Faith Today A ministry of selflessness Faith Today • Page 3 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Father John Castelot suggests that ministry to the sick figures pro minently in the ministry of Jesus as it is seen in the Gospels. It is somehow basic, vital. What is the attitude of Jesus toward the sick? In addition to expressing compassion, what does this ministry show? What are some attitudes that ministers to the sick are likely to en counter in those they serve? What are some attitudes that the sick need to encounter in those who serve them? Today, who needs the parish’s ministry to the sick? What are some forms that a parish’s ministry to the sick takes? Ministry to the sick is a benefit both to the person served and the person who serves, according to Dan Morris and Cindy Liebhart. Why is this true? Second Helpings. People who hope to exercise a powerful, healing ministry need to follow Jesus’ example in the Gospels and “go forth regularly from the crowd, from the insistent demands of ministry, even if it means forgoing sleep and rising early,” writes Trappist Father Basil Pennington in Daily We Follow Him: Learning Discipleship From Peter. Cultivating a deep spiritual life strengthens ministers for their work, he says. For, like Jesus, ministers to the sick “need to return to the Source, know the presence and power within us and know the bountiful freedom that is ours when we minister out of this Source.” Father Pennington, a noted spiritual direc tor, goes on to show how Peter grew during his experience as the disciple of Jesus during his time on earth. Always, Peter was willing to change in response to Jesus’ direction. Peter’s “basic enthusiasm was to be a true disci ple. As soon as he saw what that called for, he was completely there,” the priest says. (Doubleday and Co. Inc., 245 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10167. 1987. Paperback, $4.95 ) By Mary Coyne Wessling NC News Service A fter six years of visiting the sick in St. Pius X Parish in Greensboro, N.C., Rie Vaessen sees her ministry in terms of the whole parish: “It is not me visiting the sick person. It is a member of Christ's family doing his work.” Mrs. Vaessen began visiting peo ple as a young girl in Holland. Over the years, she kept up her service to others through volunteer jobs and as a psychiatric nurse and therapist. Now retired, Mrs. Vaessen spends several hours or more weekly making her rounds. “Some mornings I leave the house at 9 and don’t return until 8 that even ing,” she said. Mrs. Vaessen cherishes her ministry to the sick, even though “so much needs to be done and there’s never enough time to do it.” She also runs errands for peo ple and drives them to the doctor and church. Sometimes she calls people just because they might en joy hearing from her. Even family members will call her, knowing how close she is to the sick person. How close does she get? “I spoil them,” she said, laughing. “When one of them dies, By Dan Morris NC News Service D ick Folger found that the sacrament of the sick can be a two-edged healer. A candidate for the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Oakland, Calif., Folger not too secretly dreaded the seg ment of his formation process that required him to work directly with the sick and dying. What would he say? What could he do? Would it be awkward? Was this any of his business? The 52-year-old father of six laughed when he recalled his first patient “visitation” at St. Rose’s Hospital in Hayward, Calif. “We had been trained in grief- care counseling but the first time it was pretty scary for all of us,” he said. “I remember wanting to escape, but there I was on the elevator under the watchful eye of Sister Ruth Patrick. There was no way out but to actually do it. I had to visit that room.” “I was really anxious,” he con tinued, “but after I told the per son who I was and what I was it is like a member of my family has died. ” People need patience, compas sion and understanding to minister to the sick, said Mrs. Vaessen. Each visit is as different as each parishioner. She is careful to struc ture her visits — the prayers, readings, conversation — around the particular needs of each person. Another parish minister. Betty Ries, begins each home commu nion service by spreading out a white cloth hand-stitched with delicate blue flowers. She explains to her sick friends that the cloth had special significance for her mother. She is certain placing the Eucharist upon it would make her mother proud. The cloth is just one of the special touches Mrs. Ries brings to her eucharistic ministry to the sick. Now, after a year of visits to dozens of sick parishioners, she says, “I have found people really making an effort to welcome me because I am doing more than just visiting. I am bringing them the Eucharist. I come as an emissary of the Lord.” Mrs. Ries began her ministry to the sick shortly after joining St. Pius Parish when the pastor asked her to do so. “I was skeptical at first,” she ad mits. “I’m a perfectionist. I like to doing there, the anxiety fell away like scaffolding and there were just two people. It was really very easy. It seems like everyone wants to tell their story. They just need someone to listen to it.” Folger takes a deep breath. “Sometimes no words are even necessary. I remember one in stance in particular, an older man. He was just lying there in his bed staring up at the ceiling. I didn’t say anything to him. I just reach ed out and placed my hand on his forehead and stroked it a little bit and he burst into tears.” Folger added, “We didn’t say anything, but I knew my presence there was assuring him of the love of Christ, and that is a very powerful thing to be part of.” Did Folger ever struggle with the messiah complex — begin to feel like he was the provider rather than the conduit of God’s grace? He laughed again. “Well, you can’t go parading around as Jesus in the hospital, but if Jesus works through his people, then both of us were there in a very special way.” He pauses. “You know deeply be in control of a situation. I’m still afraid sometimes that I will be too concerned about the logistics and lose sight of the real purpose of my visit." Sometimes she worries — that she might come at a bad time “or make people feel they should receive the Eucharist when they don’t want to.” But like Mrs. Vaessen, she tries to keep in mind that she is a representative of the church. She told of one man -who had stopped going to church. “I felt it was important to make him feel like he was welcomed back, not just to the church but to our parish,” she said. For both women, the most im portant trait of a minister to the sick is selflessness. As Mrs. Vaessen said, “When you go into their homes, you forget yourself. You have to, otherwise you couldn’t do it.” The rewards, they said, are many: compliments and love from the parishioners and a feeling of doing something special. “This ministry has made me feel needed,” Mrs. Ries said. “It is something I can do that enhances the Lord...and his presence in these people’s lives.” (Ms. Wessling is a free-lance writer in Charlotte, N.C.) that you are on holy ground. This is serious stuff. You are not just there casually visiting. When you are with people in a ministerial capacity they so often open up their souls, tell you things they have been wanting to get off their minds. I remember at first think ing a bit that this was none of my business, but then you realize that maybe this person is not talking to you so much as talking through you to God. I was secretly proud and privileged to be part of it.” Has ministering to the sick changed Folger? For one thing, it cured his fear of the sick. Fre quently the opportunity even became the high point of his week. He explained. “I think you gain a heightened awareness that peo ple are in need, in trouble not just in the hospital, but all over the place. At work. On the street. On the bus. At church. “The importance of being will ing to listen to them, to be pre sent for them, is something I am more aware of because of my hospital ministry experience.” (Morris is a free-lance writer living on Lopez Island, Wash.) By Father John Castelot T NC News Service A lmost immediately after Jesus proclaims the ar rival of the reign of God (Mark 1:15), he is portrayed performing a series of cures. The first cure in-* volves “a man with an unclean spirit.” Baffling maladies were attributed to “spirits.” Since these forces ob viously were not beneficial, they were labeled “unclean.” In most instances, we can only guess at * their precise nature. Here the men tion of convulsions suggests something like epilepsy. r Immediately upon leaving the synagogue where the cure took place, Jesus went to the house of Simon and Andrew. There he * cured Simon’s mother-in-law, who “lay ill with a fever.” Luke, who tends to be more clinically precise, writes that Peter's mother-in-law was “in the grip of a severe fever” (Luke 4:38). Next comes a summary of a " typical day in Jesus' ministry, beginning with the notice that “they brought him all who were, ill and those possessed by demons. Before long the whole town was gathered outside the door. Those whom he cured, who were variously afflicted, were many” (Mark 1:32-33). Then come the cures of a leper and a paralytic. . This concentration on Jesus’ healing activity right at the begin ning of his ministry makes a distinct impression on the reader. But suppose someone who had only vague notions about Jesus’ ac tivity were to pick up Mark’s » Gospel and begin to read. After a brief introduction he would come upon these healing stories, one right after the other. The reader’s *' first impression of Jesus would be of a man with a compelling com passion for suffering humanity, a ,* man endowed with extraordinary powers of healing who did something practical about situations. First impressions are strongest and most lasting. In this case they are very reliable. Jesus’ whole ministry was mark ed by such activity. Luke left us a ‘"sample of the early proclamation of the Good News: “I take it you know what has been reported all .over Judea about Jesus of Nazareth... He went about doing good works and healing all who were in the grip of the devil” 'Acts 10:37-38). Surely these cures were motivated by a genuine compas sion for hurting people. But they had a deep theological meaning too. It is no accident that Mark grouped so many of them im mediately after Jesus’ basic pro clamation: “The reign of God is at hand.” God’s reign involves the victory of good over evil, whatever form it takes. And the reign of God is active, dynamic. Thus, Jesus’ cures can be viewed as an active, frontal assault on evil; they are the actual working out of God’s reign. In the very person of Jesus and through his actions,*it is seen that God’s reign has dawned in a uni que way. Luke, anxious to show that the work of Jesus continues in his followers, tells of their healing ac tivity. He begins with Peter’s cure of the crippled beggar at the tem ple gate (Acts 3:1-10). The early followers of Jesus had plenty of opportunity to care for the afflicted. Hospitals, sanitariums and convalescent homes were all but non-existent. People cared for their own sick or simply abandon ed them. But the Christians could not neglect the sick and still call themselves Christians. Caring for the sick was true discipleship. In fact, Christians who follow Jesus today in his active concern for the ill are not only performing a humanitarian kindness. Like Christ, they are neutralizing the ef fects of evil and advancing the reign of God’s love. (Father Castelot is a professor of Scripture at St. John’s Seminary, Plymouth, Mich.) Help others while you help yourself An Extension Charitable Gift Annui ty offers a unique opportunity to help yourself as you help home missioners bring the Faith to the most isolated and impoverished regions of our nation. Consider these benefits: Financial Security Our plan assures you of a fixed income for the rest of your life. Tax Advantages Besides an initial charitable contribution deduction, a portion of your annual income is tax free. Maximum Safety Extension has never missed a payment — even during the Great Depression. High Yield The older you are, the higher the rate of return. You may also designate a loved one as a beneficiary, or defer your pay ments for a better rate. Send today for no-obligation details on how you can help others and yourself through an Extension Annuity. The Catholic Church EXTENSION Society 35 East Wacker Drive • Chicago. Illinois 60601 FT 0920 Dear Father Slattery: Please send me information on Extension’s Charitable Gift Annuities. Rev./Sr./Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. . Address City Birthdate State Phone ( Zip This information will be kept strictly confidential A cure for fear of the sick
