Bishop James Conley celebrated the “White Mass” for medical professionals Saturday, Oct. 14. in Lincoln. This is an abbreviated version of his homily.
It is a great joy for me to celebrate the White Mass each year for our Catholic health care professionals. The White Mass is always celebrated on or near Oct. 18, the feast of St. Luke, the patron saint of physicians. The patron saint of our Lincoln Catholic Medical Association (CMA) guild is St. Joseph Moscati, a physician saint.
Editor's Note: See photo slideshow from the Mass.
All over the country, CMA guilds are celebrating White Masses to pray and to give thanks to the Lord for the vocation to health care ministry. The reason, of course, for why this is called the White Mass is related to the white coats you wear as physicians.
We know that Jesus was primarily a teacher and a healer. So those of us who are in the teaching profession, or the healing profession, are involved in a calling that really goes to the heart of the Lord’s mission: to teach and to heal. The Catholic Church has been intimately involved in health care, from the very beginning – the first hospitals, the first medical schools in the western world were ministries of the Catholic Church. We have a long tradition in health care. To share in that mission of the Divine physician is a great and noble calling.
In the United States we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the religious sisters who founded and operated the first Catholic hospitals in this country. They were true pioneers of the gospel mission to heal and bring comfort to the sick and infirm. We can never thank these women enough.
So, I thank all of you who’ve answered that call to serve in health care in whatever capacity you’re in, to help to heal, and to bring healing and hope to people who are struggling, physically, psychologically, emotionally, and in every way. That’s at the heart of the Lord’s ministry. We thank the Lord for that ministry, and we pray for strength and courage and energy, and renewal and hope and joy, because it’s not easy.
Those of you who are in the trenches, you know. The vocation has never been easy, I suppose. But today, we are in an era where there are a lot of challenges in health care: new technologies, ethical challenges, conscience rights, and religious liberty issues; providing health care to the poor and to those who don’t have health care and insurance. Your vocation is really very, very important.
Because today is Saturday, we offer a special Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We asked her intercession, her powerful intercession for us today and every day. The first reading is taken from the book of the prophet Joel (4:12-21). It’s a rather startling passage, all about judgment, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and how God will render justice to the people. And it won’t be pretty, but it’ll be just and, in the end, he’s assuring the people that God’s justice will reign.
I think we have to remember that as well, in our own day. God is our stronghold and our shield, as the prophet Joel tells us, and God sits in judgment over the world. Sometimes this might strike fear in our hearts personally, that God is not going to be merciful to me, or that my own weakness and sinfulness will come under the judgment of the Lord. And it will. But we know our good God is a God of mercy.
But we cannot presume upon God’s mercy. We have to do the deeds of justice. We live in the tension of an unjust world, a world where we see injustices all around us. When I read the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Joel, I can’t help but think about the recent ruthless and violent attack on the people of Israel by Islamic terrorists. When we consider the plight of the Palestinians, we see that it’s complex and historical, and it’s hard to see a resolution in that very, very volatile part of the world—politically, socially, culturally, religiously. But we trust in God. He’s in control, and he will bring about justice in the end.
That’s what we must keep our eyes on. God who is pure justice, will sort things out, and everyone will receive his just due. Even if there is injustice in the world, in the end, God will bring about justice, and bring freedom and peace to those who are oppressed and suffering injustice, in whatever way or shape it is.
This is good news. It gives us hope, and trust in faith in the midst of tremendous injustice in our world. But we can’t escape that tension. We have to live, and do the right thing, and speak up for the righteous, and witness by our own lives to God’s truth and goodness and beauty, even in the midst of an unjust world, and even in the midst of persecution.
That’s why those of you who are called to medicine, you are also a witness to justice in your own profession. You’ve taken the Hippocratic Oath. It’s very frightening and disturbing today to know that even the Hippocratic Oath, which goes back to the time of Greece, is either not taken by some physicians or even forbidden to be taken in medical schools. You who embrace that oath, and live that oath, and witness that oath serve alongside people who may not share that same belief in that oath – “to do no harm.” And yet, you still must do the right thing. You still must witness to the truth of what you’re called to do. And that may entail persecution. This more important now than ever before.
I am the national episcopal policy adviser to the Catholic Medical Association in the United States and Father Christopher Kubat (of the Diocese of Lincoln) is the national chaplain. At our conference last month in Phoenix, we learned that the largest segment of members in the CMA were medical students and residents. We’re experiencing unprecedented growth of student members and residents.
It’s always been tough to attract busy medical students and residents to even attend one of our annual conferences, or to get involved in the CMA. Their time is consumed with their studies their residencies and fellowships. But, at this conference, we had the highest number in the history of the organization. We had 61 medical students and 26 residents who came for the whole conference!
That tells me they’re looking for support. In the current milieu, they’re looking for help and support in great numbers. They’re looking for advice from mentors who have been in the profession, they’re looking for legal support. They want to know their rights, their conscience protection rights and religious liberty rights. Because they know they’re going into a profession that is not always going to be supportive of their Catholic worldview.
Father Kubat can tell you, these young physicians and future physicians want to practice true and just medicine. They are Catholic first, and physicians or soon-to-be physicians, second. They really take their faith seriously, and we are humbled and edified by their presence. They want to be well equipped, they want to be knowledgeable, and they want to have support. So, they’re joining local guilds across the country, as they prepare for their future in medicine.
It is striking that there would be such an interest in joining the CMA in these difficult times it’s a sign of hope. They’re ready for the battle; they want to make a difference; they want to witness to justice and righteousness in medicine. We want to support that, and we want to be witnesses to that justice in the world.
The gospel reading today (Luke 11:27-28) can help direct us to being witnesses to justice. Christ points to Mary, his mother. For her, the word of God came first and it should come first for us as well. And that’s what Jesus is telling us today. Put the word of God and the teachings of the Church first in our practice, in our communities and in our families. We must observe that, for justice. Beyond everything else: familial ties, culture, whatever it is, the word of God, and the truth must motivate all of our actions, even in the face of opposition.
I think that’s a good complement to the judgment of Joel. We can be at peace. If we’re following the Word of God and we’re looking at the world through the lens of our Catholic faith, and seeing everything and judging everything, and evaluating everything through the lens of our faith, then we can be at peace, even in the midst of the chaos and injustice in which we live.
