Raising Lazarus from the dead, healing the blind man, curing a man with leprosy: Throughout the Gospels, we see again and again that Jesus was a healer. In fact, these miracles performed by Jesus during His life, alongside his death and resurrection, were essential to demonstrating His identity as the Son of God. Growing up as a cradle Catholic, this idea of Jesus as a healer resonated with me, and I longed to live out the Gospel by responding to Christ’s invitation to imitate His healing abilities. Physically healing the sick in the same way as Christ seemed like such an intimate and gratifying way to use my gifts for His greater glory. This desire to imitate Christ as a healer came to become one motive that brought me to pursue medicine as my vocation.
The second motive stems from the radical love of others that we are called to show for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Throughout the Gospels, we know that we are called to love God and our neighbors: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” (Lk 10:25-27). But what does this radical love of neighbor look like, and how does this relate to medicine?
Through my service experiences in the Boston area with various Campus Ministry programs, I discovered that love of neighbor can take the form of intentional relationships with those different from yourself. These relationships involve a shared exchange of humility that serve to affirm the human dignity of both individuals involved.
For example, as a mentor and tutor at the St. Stephen’s Afterschool Program in South Boston for kids from low-income families, I made a special mentorship relationship with a sixth-grade student. On the surface, my role was to simply help her gain confidence in her academic abilities and be a positive mentorship figure. Often, after finishing our work, we would connect over our favorite artists, tell funny stories about our friends, and talk about our days over rounds of Uno. On a deeper level, our simple relationship offered a form of authentic and unconditional love that affirmed our human dignity. We were seeing each other as Christ had meant for us to see our brothers and sisters, in His image and likeness. This love transcends all differences in age, socioeconomic status, education, and home address. It leaves an enduring impression on the heart and is a heavenly reflection of God’s divine love.
It is the presence of these intentional relationships that recognize the shared dignity of individuals in the life of a physician that draw me to this vocation. In fact, they bear a significant importance in the doctor-patient relationship because physicians often see their patients at their most vulnerable. Dr. Paul Kalanithi, author of When Breath Becomes Air, describes physicians this way: “They see people at their most vulnerable, their most scared, their most private. They escort them into the world, and then back out.” This recognition of innate human dignity is essential for treating patients with humility and respect during their most vulnerable times, and without it, patients become just a collection of symptoms or another name on the physician’s packed schedule that day. This profound respect for human dignity that is rooted in the Catholic faith cannot be separated from the practice of medicine.
The opportunity to live out my faith by physically healing the body and showing a fundamental respect for human dignity really speaks to me. God-willing, you can find me as a pediatrician ten years down the line in a small private practice, bearing witness to Christ by cherishing the life of every unique person that walks through my office doors.
Featured image courtesy of pxfuel.com
- Loving through Medicine - October 29, 2020