Courage In Medicine

Dear Friends
From September 25-27th I went to the Catholic Medical Association Conference. It was an amazing event with 3 days of being surrounded with more than 600 providers, clergy and families discussing how to uphold the Catholic faith in the science and practice of medicine. We had some great speakers such as Cardinal Burke, Brandon Vogt,  Ashley Fernandez, Mary Jo Anderson, Bishop Noonan and Bishop Conley and Sister Mary Dreiger. There were even more than I can name, and more than that there were an abundance of wonderful people who love God and wanted to love people in the field of medicine. I wanted to recap some of the main themes of the conference.

1. Courage: Between good and evil there is no safe place to stand.

To be a christian health care provider requires courage. To be a christian requires courage. To be both requires.... LOTS of courage. So many challenges face a provider to uphold the hippocratic oath, to do no harm and protect life. So challenging it is to do this in a society that does not celebrate life, but rather treats it with carelessness. God is not looking for the best equipped. He's looking for the willing- Mary Jo Anderson. We were exhorted by Rev. Robert McTeigue to remember we are the God's servants first, providers second and the first is inextricable from the second. He encouraged endurance which he described as the stubborn and patient commitment to the greater good even in the face of the seemingly impossible. He also reminded us that courage is only possible for one who is vulnerable.   Ashley Fernandez MD, PHD pushed us to "Be the Anvil." He encourages us that the anvil helps to shape objects just as much as the hammer does but it does so through a strong unmovable force. The anvil lasts longer than the hammer and despite the pounding of the hammer provides the strength of the pound of the hammer from it's resistance. We are to be anvils in our society and hold up with strength the truth proclaiming Jesus Christ in our careers. We are to be immovable, strong and steady knowing that a dripping water hollows out stone not through force but persistence.  Finally Bishop Conoley urged us "You are called to be saints- nothing more nothing less."

"You must put on the armor of God if you are to resist on the evil day; do all that your duty requires, and hold your ground." -Ephesians 6:13

2. Conscience: Following the path of truth. 

Cardinal Burke began the conference sharing that our conscience is to lead us to what is right and true. Our hearts and our conscience need to be trained to Jesus and is a messenger for Him. Rev. McTeigue shared that our conscience needs trained so that we may formed good habits which are natural and humanizing by pursuing the cardinal virtues. There was a great deal of discussion on how America is stripping away the conscience clause to help protect those who do not want to violate their beliefs and replacing it with the mandate that we have to do what our patient feels is best for them.  We were challenged to be courageous and stand up for truth. Our fight against evil starts by looking in the mirror and conforming ourselves to study and prayer. Without true study and prayer we can not grow in faith and we can not be prepared to discuss the science behind the truth of things like abortion, contraceptives,  and end of life care. Truth is a conformation of the mind to reality and the truth does not constrain us. The truth will set you free. We were challenged to share the truth that hormonal birth control is abortifacient (meaning it causes abortions), that sterilization surgeries violate our hippocratic oath as they take a working system and breaks it. We were challenged to share that people should not be denied the minimum standard of care no matter how sick, injured or old. Finally we were challenged to see Christ in our patients and to remember "when you do for the least of these you do for me."

3. Challenge: " We live in a time that calls for sentinels and public witness. Every Christian in every era faces the same task. But you and I are responsible for THIS moment. Today. Now. We need to "speak out" not only for religious liberty and the ideals of the nation we love, but for the sacredness of life and the dignity of the human person, in other words, for the truth of what it means to be made int he image and likeness of God."- Archbishop Charles Chaput.

We were reminded of the challenges and called to defend the most vulnerable and pursue the direction of the new evangelization with passion. Dr Dutkowsky reminded us "The ground is never more level than at the foot of the cross. There is no separate cross for Downs Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, ect." We were challenged to protect the weak, the sick, the injured, the least of these. Sister Mary Dreger reminded us "You are to be the model of the Divine Physician, You are to make Jesus known. A medical profession does not contradict the profession of christian." We were pushed to know it won't be easy and could challenge our lives, our comfortability, and our jobs. As our country moves from true religious freedom to merely a freedom of worship we are loosing and the only way to fight this is to work together (Freedom of worship only protects against practices in home and in church. It does not protect against public expression of worship).


The 3 days were incredible and it was amazing to be challenged, and encouraged to uphold the faith in my career as a PA. It can be difficult when you feel you are alone in this work but just from being back to the office one day I can tell those 3 days, even though I haven't had time to process all of it, have changed the way I see patients. I know God is sanctifying me through my profession and growing my faith. He is challenging me. He is growing me and He is asking me to have courage in medicine, grow my conscience and accept the challenge to define my life and my practice by Jesus Christ no matter the cost.

Finally, I was reminded the following:

Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are- St. Augustine

A righteous anger about how life is treated with a lack of respect by a culture that glorifies death. We are reminded not to conform to the pattern of the world and to take courage as we can provide hope. God blessed me today with a patient who told me just that "you gave me hope today" and the words melted my heart challenged me even more to provide the hope of Jesus Christ through love. 

"The Truth of Christ needs not only be understood, articulated and defended but to be proposed joyfully and confidently." - Pope Benedict XVI. 

<3

It is NOT the Bible or Tradition it is BOTH.

Hello friends!

It's been a busy several weeks but I've missed writing and sharing.
Yesterday was the first saturday of a saturday morning bible study at my house. It's an varied group of some catholics, some protestants, some non-church attenders. Some are mothers of children, others are mothers for 4 legged fur babies. Some are married, some are single. All are beautiful women who God loves.

Why? Because ladies need to get together and talk and pray and share our joy and burdens with one another. We need community and we need the word of God.

Too often I meet people who tell me "I used to be catholic but then I went to/met/talked with ___________ and I started reading the bible and left the church." It amazes me because the very thing that led them away from the church, led me to the Church.  Similarly I meet protestants who say "I don't want to be catholic it's all about the bible not about man made tradition." The bible is a tradition and the tradition of the church is not made by man but by God it is just carried on by men.

My catholic brothers and sisters: PLEASE love the word of God. Please read your bible. After all, that book is a book that your church put together. Thank you for your love of the tradition of the church but please know the bible is part of that tradition.

My protestant brothers and sisters: thank you for your love of the bible, but my dear friends please do not reject the beauty of tradition.


Friends: it is not the bible or tradition: It's Both.

Origen, third century teacher of Alexandria proclaimed "You who are accustomed to attending the divine mysteries know who, when you receive the body of the Lord, you guard it with all care and reverence lest any small part should fall from it, lest any piece of the consecrated gift be lost. For you believe yourself guilty, and rightly so, if anything falls from there through your negligence. But if you are so careful to preserve his body, and rightly so, why do you think that there is any less guilt to have neglected God's word than to have neglected his body?" 

Friends Origen helps us to see that the word of God and communion with God are both Holy. In the bread and in the word there is a real presence of our Lord.

Friends we can not deliver the Gospel, the Good News, if we do not first possess it.

Why is tradition important?
Before the fourth century there is no recorded canon of scripture exactly with the same list of books found in Christian bibles today. Before then there were letters that circulated from the apostles and by and large they agreed on the four gospels, some of Paul's letters but things written by Peter, James, John the letter of Hebrews, Revelation, all of these were debated. Moreover, first century letters from Barnabas and Clement were considered inspired by some churches and not others. For these early christians they had to rely on tradition. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 "Therefore brothers stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours." 

When the final canon or list of books was agreed upon, there was no printing press and thus scribes had to spend hours copying pages. Just one copy of the bible took months and was quite costly. Literacy levels were low. These letters belong to the Catholic Church and were shared during mass. When the printing press was finally available it was so expensive to print that the average family couldn't afford the bible but they could read it at the local church (if they could read). Our world today of the bible being everywhere makes this hard to think of but if you were a christian before the bible all you had was tradition. Remember no where in the bible does it say 100% of what you believe must come from the bible. All we believe as Christians must align with the bible and not be contradicted by the bible but there is so much to know. The bible is part of the tradition of the Catholic Church.

Why is the Bible Important?

It is the inspired word of God that tells one continuous story over 1500 years, over 40 generations with over 40 different human authors with a variety of backgrounds (kings, poets, scholars, peasants, prophets, and prisoners) and from many different places (wilderness, prison, hillside, traveling), covering multiple continents and in 3 different languages (hebrew, aramaic and greek). God's word is living and active and it's also a beautiful snapshot of history.

The liturgy of the Eucharist is understood through the study of scripture and the mass is made up of the reading of scripture. When we hear the priest say "Behold the Lamb of God, Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb" we hear a fulfillment of the old covenant and the promise of the new. It is through the study of scripture we learn about these covenants, about the savior of the world, about the call to be a disciple, to study, and an apostle, to be sent. It's only through both tradition and scripture that we can understand more about our loving God who gave us so much rich beauty.

In the Catholic Church we read almost the whole bible every 3 years during mass. A new testament, Old Testament, Psalm and Gospel reading is part of our literature and our sermons (homilies) are much shorter. We stand with the reading of the gospel as we are being commissioned to go out and spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. We stand ready as a reminder of this. Every catholic church is reading the same scriptures each day as the rest of the world. For instance the scriptures I heard in mass today are the same that will be read all over today. This is helpful if you are on vacation or visiting a church you aren't missing what your church is doing as we are all one church. The homily will be different in each mass but it's aim is to remind you of how to apply the scriptures that are read.

In the Protestant churches, most use scripture as a part of each sermon/message given. Churches vary on how they do this and what's said in one church is not what is talked about in the next. Many times it is up to the Pastor, speaker or Elder what is spoken on.

No matter where you go to church they want you to have a personal relationship with Christ. (note: I did not say private, we are all the body of Christ and to be in community).  Many will say that they don't like religion and they believe only in a relationship but that's an oxymoron. Religion come from "religare" the latin word which means relationship (to tie or bind together). We all believe that a relationship is key, and that to blindly go through the motions is not what it is about. Let's stop fighting against each other and start understanding that we are after the same thing: to worship God and to know Him.  We can grow in our relationship both through scripture and tradition. They are our guideposts.

Friends I did not forsake my love of God's word for the my love of tradition when I became Catholic. I took my love of Gods word with me and it grew with the addition of tradition and history.

 It is NOT the bible OR tradition it is BOTH.