Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 64(3) August 2014
Faith in Medicine
Mary the first missionary.
A Rosary meditation on the Visitation of
Our Lady to St Elizabeth
At
the visitation, St. John the Baptist leapt in the womb at the joy of
meeting his Saviour. It is held that at the moment of the visitation, St
John was baptised, cleansed of his Original Sin and became the first
disciple of Jesus. Mary therefore, was the first person to take Jesus to
someone else and to bring them to salvation. Mary was truly the first
missionary.
In our work, we too are missionaries of Christ, bringing the hope of healing to our patients. Alongside that, the healing of illness itself brings great opportunities for self-reflection and a search for God.
As doctors and nurses, we all work in a very privileged way with patients who both depend upon us and trust us. We understand that each one of our patients is on a journey towards their eternity. It is right therefore that we see what we do as an opportunity to support our patients in that journey. That support must be absolutely based upon excellent medicine
Treatments we give must be both good and effective. The care we offer must be excellent. That also means that, especially at times of critical illness, we should be willing to enable our patients to access both spiritual and religious care which is appropriate to their background.
Through excellent medicine, which includes enabling appropriate access to spiritual care, we too can bring Christ to the people whom we serve. That is a huge privilege. As we bring Christ to our patients, we follow in the footsteps of Mary, the first missionary.