Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

The Mercy of God and Modern Medicine 147 doctors and nurses come to think that life and death is in their hands, and that they are the arbiters o f life and death. Rather, the mission o f the healthcare worker is “to respond to a transcendent call (the Pope’s words), which takes its shape and form in the suffering and imploring countenance o f the patient in their care. This mission and this vocation have to be seen in the light of the baptismal call to holiness and imita­ tion of Jesus Christ, who went about healing the sick and doing all man­ ner o f good works.” The healthcare worker lives this out in a specific form which matures his interior likeness to Christ while continuing the formation o f those qualities required by the demands o f his profession­ al duties. The Holy Father spoke to Italian Catholic doctors and said, “To care lovingly for a sick person is to fulfill a divine mission which alone can motivate and sustain the most disinterested, dedicated and faithful commitment and give it priestly value” — priestly valuel The Holy Father, in speaking about the Good Samaritan said, “Healthcare workers are the Good Samaritan of the parable who stops beside the wounded person and becomes a neighbour in charity.” Now, when the Holy Father speaks o f the Good Samaritan, you have to realize that at times the Good Samaritan is an image o f Our Lord and at others an image of the believing disciple, a paradigm o f true service. If you look at icons in Eastern Christian Churches and Orthodox and Byzantine Churches that depict the Good Samaritan, the Good Samaritan is Christ. But we tend to consider it only as the image o f the disciple who serves. In the 1984 Letter, Salvifici Dolores, the Holy Father said that the parable o f the Good Samaritan belongs to the Gospel o f Suffering, which means for him that it indicates what our relationship to the suf­ ferings of Jesus and our sufferings as related to Jesus must be. In treat­ ing the significance of the parable, the Pope emphasizes first the quali­ ty o f sensitivity — which bears witness to His compassion. This is the indispensable disposition o f our hearts. If our hearts are hearts o f stone they cannot be hearts o f mercy. Sometimes, the Pope writes, this com­ passion remains the only or principal expression o f our love for, and our solidarity with, the sufferer. But this is not the optimum expression; the traveller o f the parable incarnates his love in deeds o f mercy. It is his helpful assistance that makes him the Good Samaritan, an assistance which seeks to be as effective and provident as possible because it is a giving o f self. Christ gives mercy because He is Mercy! We can only be merciful if we are giving ourselves. “Man cannot fully find himself