Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

146 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel and conscience. The trust o f those who are ill and suffering and, hence, in need, who entrust themselves to the conscience o f another who can help them in their needs and who comes to their assistance to care for them and to cure them. This is the relationship between patient and healthcare workers. Trust on the part of the patients; conscience on the part of the healthcare workers. Conscience not to violate that trust. On the part o f the sick person, this implies a confidence in the profession- ality — the professional competence and the professional integrity — of the caregiver. The hope and desire for the improvement o f one’s physi­ cal sufferings through cure or therapy is joined to the expectations of compassion , and hence, the relief of mental sufferings and anguish as well. This is because a patient is a person. We do a great disservice in hospital and elsewhere when we refer to “the prostate in 302” or “the cardiac in 604.” These are manifestations of depersonalization. How can you be merciful to “the cardiac”? It’s not possible! On his part, the clin­ ician, the healthcare provider, finds that his scientific and professional expertise is engaged only because o f this foundational trust. The empa­ thy that a physician or a nurse has for patients has to originate from his own humanity and moral character, and it is expressed in the dialogue that exists between the two persons. This, as the Pope says, requires love, availability, attention, understanding, sharing, benevolence, patience, dialogue. Now it interests me that in this document the word “mercy” is only used twice, and it is used only in relationship to God. It seems that the authors of the Charter were trying to follow something that they find in the Holy Father’s own writings, and that is that “mercy” is another expression for the Second Person o f the Trinity. “Mercy” is the very essence o f God, and therefore the document does not use the word in relation to us — to our practice o f virtues except in so far as we act as emissaries and channels of the Mercy o f Christ. All the compo­ nents o f mercy, the benevolence which goes beyond justice, the human solidarity in heroic and oblational love, are present in this document. Since it is completely imbued with the spirit and the quotations o f the author o f Dives in Misericordia — the Pope o f Divine Mercy — his thought is evident on mercy and on the works o f mercy throughout the entire text. In the encounter that a healthcare worker has with a patient, he has to be aware o f his own limits and the limits of human nature. If we are not so aware, we may overstep our bounds. And these are the points when