Aug. 30, 2009: 22nd Sunday Ordinary (B)

Many of you during summer have taken some time off for vacation or took a class to learn something new. I know some young people of our diocese went to mission work in Virginia near Appalachian mountains. And some went to mission work much closer to us, in Vacherie in conjunction with Our Lady of Peace parish. The young people who go on these mission trips are told up front that they are not going there expecting to give people something. Instead, the young people are told to be ready to be present to the people, to listen and to receive. Being a missionary is not about painting walls, tearing down moldy dry walls, or pulling up weeds for someone; that would be a social work. But being a missionary for Jesus means that with our presence we radiate God's gentle compassion which stirs the hearts of others to know more about Jesus. And the missionaries themselves need to be prepared to be touched by the persons they are helping; for it's never one-way giving. We receive far more of Jesus's compassion from the very person we're helping, if we have eyes to see it.

(Photo of Kristen Murphy, from NY Times) That's what happened to a 38 yr. old medical school student named Kristen Murphy. She was interested in geriatric medicine, and she was given a chance to experience life as a nursing home patient for two weeks in a real nursing home. For two weeks, Kristen assumed a role of a wheelchair-bound 80 yr. old patient who had a mild stroke with loss of right side function and difficulty swallowing. Why did she want to do this? Kristen's desire to help the elderly began in her childhood when she visited her grand mother in a nursing home. She remembered that her grand mother was always in bed and the television was usually set to channels which the staff enjoyed, like wrestling. Kristen had many preconceived notions about the nursing homes. For one thing, she was scared of nursing homes. She said, "but I don't think you can be a good doctor of you're scared of the place where a lot of your patients live."

So what was Kristen's two weeks like? As an 80 yr. old stroke patient, Kristen learned that simple things like getting out of bed, going to bathroom, and taking shower all required help. In the middle of night when she wanted to go to bathroom, she had to call the staff to hoist her out of her bed with a lifter and set her on the toilet. And Kristen hated being bathed by another person. It was uncomfortable, if not embarassing for another person to be present for something so private. Personal privacy and personal space she used to enjoy were not there. Eating pureed food was another consequence of being a patient who had difficulty swallowing. Trying to maneuver wheel chair with limited right hand coordination was another challenge. When she wedged her wheelchair into a corner and could not get out, she cried in frustration. She said, "All I wanted to do was shut my door and stay in here." Kristen learned that many patients cried because they knew that they would most likely never live anywhere else, or because they miss family and their old life. She said, "At times I felt really lonely and got depressed. Sometimes it was an emotional roller coaster, up and down, up and down."

What did Kristen learn from those two weeks? Prior to spending time at the nursing home, Kristen was puzzled as to why elderly patients were reluctant to be more physically active. But Kristen saw for herself how the physical pain of arthritis and emotional pain of losing independence and loneliness can make one tired and want not to move. She learned that it was better sometimes for the person to rest and stay in their wheelchair; that may be what that person needs. Kristen began to see the person from their shoes rather than from her own. And she began to be more present and listening than trying to fix the person.

Some of us here know the experience that Kristen went through. For some of us, this is our daily life. For some, our loved ones are living in nursing homes right now. St. James asks us today, "Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves." To be a missionary is to spread the Good News, by making flesh with our own actions the Word of God we have received. St. James continues, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world." St. James suggests here that our missionary field is not so far as another country, another state, or another city. It may be right in our midst.

Mother Teresa said the following to the graduating class of Harvard University. "People ask me, where is that hunger in our country, where is that nakedness in our country, where is that homelessness in our country? Yes, there is hunger. May be not the hunger for piece of bread, but there is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives, the pain and loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize the poor we may have right in our own family. Find them and love them. Put your love for them in living action. For in loving them, you are loving God himself.

(The story of Kristen Murphy was featured on the New York Times on Aug. 24, 2009.)