Building a culture of life by caring for the sick

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “‘Heal the sick!’ The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession.”

Caring for and healing the sick has been on my mind lately, as I suddenly found myself the recipient of a lot of care. I recently traveled to spend a few days with my best friend. The day before I left her house to return home, I started feeling like I was coming down with a cold. The day of my flight, I felt a bit worse but thought I would power through and just get home. It seems that God had other plans.

A few minutes after I sat down on the plane, I started to feel really hot and dizzy. Long story short, I ended up passing out as the plane was taxiing. Thankfully, the gentleman sitting next to me noticed and called the flight attendant. The flight crew took care of me, and a gentleman across the aisle said he was an EMT, so he switched seats with the man sitting next to me and took my blood pressure and got me something to drink.

The pilot then returned to the gate, and airport EMTs took care of me until an ambulance arrived. At the hospital, I found that I have pneumonia.

I was too embarrassed and felt too awful to adequately thank all the people who helped me that day. I know I apologized profusely for delaying the flight. I hope that I thanked all the people who helped me.

But the thing that stood out most was the kindness and compassion of strangers. None of the other passengers on the plane looked or sounded annoyed that I had caused a delay. No one made me feel like a burden or an annoyance. The flight crew and those who directly helped me were friendly and kind, full of smiles. The pilot even got off the plane to check on me, and he waited with me for several minutes at the gate.

So I returned to my friend’s house, and she pampered me for a few days as I lay sick in bed. Then, because I could not fly, my son drove to pick me up, and he lovingly took care of me, helping me get home safely.

The love and compassion I felt from all of these people, and from the family and friends who kept me in their prayers, helped ease the pain of being sick.

Taking care of the sick is an integral part of being pro-life. A lot of times people think that being pro-life is only defending preborn babies, but it means joyfully caring for all people in need—the preborn, the elderly, the vulnerable, and the sick—and making them feel valued and important just because they are human beings and beloved children of God.

Jesus taught His disciples, “I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Yes, the things we do for others in our lives, we also do for God. Likewise, the things we neglect to do for others are things we neglect to do for God.

As a society, we must learn to see others through God’s eyes and to take care of them as He would. St. Catherine Laboure said this simply: “One must see God in everyone.”

If we do that, we will naturally care for others with love and grace. We will want to care for them, never making them feel like a burden or annoyance.

Both caring for someone and allowing yourself to be taken care of are immense blessings. We can only do this by putting the needs of others before our own and by truly seeing God in everyone we encounter.

At some point in life, we will all need help. We will all need someone to care for us. It should be neither an embarrassment nor a deterrent to ask for help.

I am humbled by the loving care I received during the course of my illness, and I pray that this compassionate attitude is one we can all adopt when we see someone in need. Life is difficult, but it can either be made easier or more difficult by how the people around us treat us.

So let us see others through God’s eyes and show His love and compassion to those in need. This is how we build a culture of life where all are respected and cherished.

Catholic World Report