For almost a year, I have been going two mornings a week to the hospital, Dottor Sotero del Rio, which is located in the zone of Puente Alto, in Santiago, Chile. It is a public hospital that offers assistance to a sector of the city that includes more than a million inhabitants.
Being inside this immense hospital brings with it a large number of different activities, encounters, celebrations and initiatives that are born from our ever-active and available presence.
With me, full time, seven days a week, there is Simone Gulmini, chaplain of the hospital for many years now. Being able to share this mission with Simone is a great grace and a witness for many doctors, nurses and patients who see us enter and exit from the rooms. What we say implicitly is that all have the need of a vocational companionship to truly face life, sickness, moments of joy and even death. And this companionship is possible; we just need to open ourselves to it.
The tears which heal and repair can only come from a real and carnal encounter with the living Lord
Despite all of this, there is the ever-present risk of carrying out this work as if it were one of the many tasks of the week. However, at times, something unexpected happens that awakens me from torpor and makes me return to thank the Lord for my vocation.
In recent weeks, I have heard the confession of some terminally ill patients whom the hospital was sending home for palliative care. The surprise at their sincerity, at the request they made to return to communion with the Lord, enlarged my heart. People who had unbearable burdens to bear found a look of mercy in the last moment of their lives. People who had harmed or long hated those who had harmed them found peace and hope in confession.
St. Augustine wrote that it is necessary to “look at Him by whom you were made beautiful.” Here, I believe that tears, which heal and repair that wounds we often create, can only come from the experience of a real and carnal encounter with the risen and living Lord who, for so many sick people, arrives at their doorstep through a priest.