STAY WELL & SPARKLE: My Hero, Father Damien

This week in the Middle East, a Shiite policeman and his family are assassinated by Sunnis. His funeral service is mortally attacked with additional bombs set to explode only when emergency personnel arrived. Hardly breaking news any more, is it? Clergy around the world are in cut throat competition, becoming fabulously wealthy preaching a prosperity gospel. Their ecstatic congregations become poorer, dying from easily treatable diseases. It’s things like that which grieves my heart to no end, just witnessing how far mankind has descended in its perversion of true religion.

So for me, medicine was a calling to help people, something I learned from my mother who served as a nurse at St. Luke’s Mental Hospital, located in those days at Her Majesty’s Prison at Stock Farm. Without adequate social welfare services to transition mentally challenged patients back into the mainstream, I saw how she taught them the responsibility of doing simple errands and tried to get them placed in basic jobs. She taught us love demands action, even though you may be misunderstood.

I remember attending grand medical conferences in United States. Upon hearing that I was a surgeon, women would tease me about where I had my vacation homes and whether I had already gotten my Mercedes Benz. They would ask in jest, but it was clear they were interested, not so much in whom I was, but more so in what they thought I should have. To those who pursue such material blessings, I say more power to you. I became increasing disillusioned with the extreme profit motive in American medicine. It was natural for me to therefore take a leading role in the campaign for healthcare for the working poor. I held town house meetings and led demonstrations, directly confronting local authorities in my typical rush to fix the ills of society as I saw them.

Sometimes my zeal got me in trouble. However, the cause being right, I always trusted God to get me out of trouble and he has never failed me yet! In the end I came to the conclusion that try as we may, in every generation there are things, which are unfair. In the end, it is not so important succeeding to change the world, but succeeding to change oneself in renewal and service to mankind.

If one is getting hit from both sides of the political divide, chances are somebody is doing something right. On arrival in my native home a few months ago, some asked if I came back to march around the Minlistry again! Others sniped that the Christian brothers were bought over and silenced. The truth is that I am back to fulfill an obligation to those faithful folks who supported my medical education. I am back to continue my unbroken contribution to the development of my people, in which I have been consistently involved, wherever I was.

Politics is essential for administration of any nation. However, it is nowhere as important as each of us truly caring for our fellowman, regardless of race, religion or party. This is my focus. I will deviate neither to the left nor to the right.

I used to think that the Good Samaritan was the highest expression of caring for the poor, unfortunate stranger. That was until I heard of Father Damien of Molokai. He dedicated his life to the service of lepers in Hawaii, eventually contracting and dying from the disease. To be perfectly honest with you, I am moved to tears whenever I read his story.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Damien. No amount of doctrine or liturgy or sermonizing can touch the impact of this man’s life. And I hasten to add that there are many other devout, inspiring people from diverse denominations who carry out self-sacrificial work in the service of the Saviour.

Material goods and worldly accomplishments are good in their own right. Taking a stand for truth is more important, regardless what the cost. While we breathe the same air and share the same world, each of us has our own little challenges – the tests we are asked to pass, the tasks we are asked to perform. God has an agenda for each of our lives. We can try to run away from it like Jonah, or we can try to get with the program. Either way, people are guaranteed to oppose you. But I am comforted by the words of Gamaliel, the Jewish scholar of the law. Regarding the disciples who had been thrown in prison, he said (Acts 5: 38,39), “If it is of men, it will be overthrown, but if it is of God, you will not be able to stop them; or else you may find yourself fighting against God.”

Dr. Sam Christian is a general surgeon and general practitioner. He is author of the book ‘Mannafast Miracle’ and serves as Medical Advisor to the Dominica Cancer Society.