1st Monday of Lent

 

When I was ministering at St. Francis Xavier Hospital, I met woman, by the name of Margaret, who became a nurse in 1955. After high school studied 3 years to become a nurse. She was a nurse for over 50 years at St. Francis Xavier Hospital in Tulsa and retired 7 years ago, but continues to volunteer in Employee Health at the hospital. She has been a nurse for 63 years. Last year she also became a patient. And I told her someday, she will have a great reward in heaven.

In today’s Gospel Jesus said, “When I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, when a stranger you welcomed me, naked you clothed me, ill you cared for me and in prison you visited me.”

Isn’t that what nurses do? They feed the hungry, sometimes by feeding those who cannot eat by themselves, or replace nutrition bags for those who have a feeding tube. They give glasses of water to the thirsty and replace IV bags for hydration. They help patients to put on their hospital gowns, change diapers and dump out bedpans and urinals and sometimes help the homeless with donated clothing. They care for the ill by changing their bedding and their bandages, they give medicine and pills to them. They check their blood pressure and temperature. Nurses go from room to room throughout the day dealing with all sorts of health needs. One room is a car accident. And in the next room, suddenly a Code Blue and they must do chest compressions. The next room is an overdose, another room is an elderly man dying, one room is gunshot victim. Nurses care for elderly patients, children patients, and all sorts of everyone in between. Most every person is a stranger but treated as a friend.

What are they doing? They are serving Jesus in the disguise of the sick. “When I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, when a stranger you welcomed me, naked you clothed me, ill you cared for me….”

This how we will be judged. On the day of judgment those who did acts of mercy, the sheep, will be placed the right and those who refused to give mercy, the goats, who will be placed on the left.

How glorious is the crown of nurses, who pour out themselves out of love for neighbor. Today, let us pray for nurses and all employees and volunteers of all hospitals. May all who work here open their hearts to see Jesus in the disguise of the patients. And when their life ends, those who loved and gave mercy to Jesus in the patients will hear Our Lord’s voice, “Come you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”