The health care profession needs God and the Church

Humanity needs the presence of God and the Church, despite the world’s insistence that it does not.
 
During the first week of Lent, we hear that “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being” (Gen 2:7). Throughout Sacred Scripture, the breath of God sustains the prophets of old by revealing God’s presence to the Israelites; Christ, in turn, promises to not leave us orphans, assuring that he will come to us and dwell within us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. As author Kathleen Rushton wrote in a New Zealander Catholic journal, “The Spirit was a way of speaking about the powerful presence of the God of Israel. The Spirit expresses the creative, prophetic and renewing presence of God to not only the people of Israel but to the wider world.”
 
The indwelling of the Spirit heightens the value of each human life and brings the presence of peace to a world in need. C.S. Lewis faithfully spoke this truth of God’s infinite presence on BBC Radio during World War II when many throughout Europe sought guidance in faith and sought the presence of God in a world at war.

In today’s culture, religion and the Church are often dismissed as a set of personal beliefs or as a world view that should not be imposed upon another. Things pertaining to faith and God are hardly discussed on public broadcasting channels. Even secular and professional standards of health care boldly assert that practitioners such as physicians, nurses, or chaplains should never allow their own personal beliefs of faith and religion to be projected onto the patients for whom they care.
 
Yet, as theologian Stanley Hauerwas articulates in his 1985 article “Salvation and Health: Why Medicine Needs the Church,” the Christian Church specializes in providing the supplies and resources, or the habits and practices necessary to sustain the care for those who are ill and in pain. Why? Because the Church community specializes in the care for those who are ill and in pain, and the Church sustains those who are called to care for the dying and the sick. The Church specializes in trusting God’s unfailing presence; the Church seeks the indwelling presence of life and peace.
 
The Church specializes in being present through humanity’s vulnerability, sinfulness, and pain by leading us to our moral end, which is eternal life. C.S. Lewis openly and clearly asserted hope for a world at war by pointing toward this moral good. Lewis skillfully affirmed that morality has three parts, which include personal or internal moral integrity. We must know what is good by seeking virtue and grace. We must bring the presence of God to those with whom we have social relations by loving our neighbor as ourselves, by regarding every person with intrinsic dignity and respect. Lastly, we must know where we are going and from whom the indwelling Spirit comes.
 
By knowing our destination, we recognize the plight of our human condition. We see that the world groans in agony, pain, and despair, and we know that we must respond with the presence of God. We know that our world is prone to dissatisfaction, fear, and hatred, so we pray in supplication for God’s breath of peace. We are aware of our helplessness, our vulnerabilities, and our suffering, yet we seek to never lose our faith that flows from the Spirit of God’s mercy and love.