After naming this particular blog post I see an unwarranted
pun…trust me it’s not intended and you should understand by the end of the
post. This summer I have the opportunity
to gain experience in a very specific ministry known has hospital
chaplaincy. Part of our seminary
training here in the U.S.A (and I’m sure other countries as well) is taking
part in a hospital chaplaincy internship.
Most diocese’s take advantage of a nationwide program called Clinical
Pastoral Education (CPE). This is a
program designed to train hospital chaplains and involves a very rigorous
certification process (praise Jesus we are not required to be certified). Chaplains who are CPE certified are held to a
prestigious level and take precedence in hiring (most hospitals require at
least some CPE training). For this
reason many Bishops make good use of this resource to assist their future
priests.
My CPE
site is right here in Chicago at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak
Lawn. This is a very busy hospital due
to our level one trauma center, top doctors in multiple areas of medicine, our
children’s hospital, and our prime placement on Chicago’s Southwest side. Christ Medical Center is a great hospital
with a wonderful staff who truly care for each patient and work hard to keep
people alive. I must admit that I am
very impressed by all the doctors, technicians, nurses, security, secretaries,
maintenance, etc. and how well we all work as a team for our patients. However, because this is a busy hospital,
full of sick and suffering patients, the chaplains have a lot of work to do and
people to minister to. I have seen more
pain and suffering in this hospital than I have ever wanted to witness. From gunshot victims to car accidents,
domestic violence to failed burglaries, kids making mistakes to children
drowning in pools, cancer patients to strokes, I have seen it all and
ministered to these people and/or their families…and it isn’t easy.
Amid
all the suffering, pain, exhaustion, depression, and sadness that I have witnessed
I have also witnessed a profound love of God.
I can honestly say that most of my patients love God very much and don’t
blame him for their suffering. As a
matter of fact they grow closer to God through their suffering. I have witnessed this for not only my
Christian patients but also non-Christians.
These people seek prayer and feel its benefits even if their prayers
don’t seem to have been answered. My
Catholic patients I've visited trust in redemptive suffering, where one unites
their pains to Christ on the Cross for the salvation of their soul or others,
and which St. John Paul the Great wrote about in his Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Doloris (on the Christian
meaning of Human Suffering). These
patients have, in a way, proven to me that God exists. I have not been questioning Gods existence at
all but these patients who love God amid their terrible pain and suffering are
just more proof that God is present and real.
Much like the Apostle, St. Thomas, who needed to touch the wounds of
Christ, I feel that I am touching those wounds when I interact and pray with
these holy men and women. I should be
ministering to them; however, they are ministering to me and I feel God
speaking to me through them. I hope that
they feel God speaking to them through me.
While
hospital chaplaincy is not my vocation within priesthood I have a new respect
for hospital chaplains. This is not an
easy ministry and it is certainly not for the faint of heart. These brave men and women are willing to sit,
talk, pray, and even be silent with many different people who experiencing
terrible pains and suffering. Their main
concern is the comfort of the patient and then we focus on the family. This is one of the most selfless ministries I
have been a part of. Please say a prayer
for full time hospital chaplains and their families and please keep my brothers
and me in your prayers as our summer chaplain internships come to a close. And always keep the suffering members of the
Body of Christ in your daily prayers that, if God wills
them to come home, they may be welcomed into his Heavenly Kingdom.
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