“His reputation continued to grow, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to have their sickness cured, but he would always go off to some place where he could be alone and pray” Luke 5:16.

What is a distinguishing characteristic of a great physician? The doctor is certainly there to treat and cure our ills. But first, the doctor must diagnose the illness. And the more skilled the physician is at identifying the disease and prescribing remedies, the sooner the patient gets well.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Divine physician—but prior to that attribute—he is the Divine diagnostician. Diagnosis is a superior combination of Greek words. The preposition Dia - gignoskein Dia’ meaning RIGHT THROUGH, and gignoskein – LEARN. To get through all the data, piercing the curtain of ignorance. And, the word gnosis means spiritual KNOWLEDGE, but more broadly: intuition.

In the words of St. Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles (10:38): “God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil.”  The Church in our time continues good works and curing all who have fallen under the power of the devil.

Jesus found the sheep without shepherds—they were hungry for divine nourishment—because the malnourished will not heal. He also diagnosed the treacherous hypocrisy of the shepherds of that age. He fed stomachs with bread, fish and wine. He cured sickness of body and mind, and exorcised demons. He prescribed the medicine of humility and repentance. It was a medicine his own people of Nazareth would not accept. If we engage in self-diagnosis, we can endanger our physical health. So it is with spiritual health. Latin maxim: “Nemo judex in propria causa” – You can’t be the judge in your own case.

Recently, a journalist tried to diagnose the condition of a popular political figure, who had engaged in two-faced and slippery behavior, apparently oblivious to the disaster it would cause himself and all around him. Her diagnosis: “progressive malignant narcissism.” [disorder as for clergy: A.M.E.N. acute malignant ecclesiastical narcissism]

As the Gospel of St. John reveals, even before Jesus would begin his ministry of healing, he would perform that first great sign at Cana. And, we find Mary at the wedding party making the diagnosis.

She intuits the entire situation. Mary is the Divine Remedy prepared for us by the Father to become the birth-giver of the Divine Physician. The wine represents a medicament to comfort our sinful soul. It is also the wine of joy in the knowledge of our dignity as Christians—and we acclaim Mary as “Cause of our joy” and “Health of the Sick.”

In St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus would describe himself as the Good Samaritan who applies sanitizing wine and soothing oil to the battered victim—that is, to every one of us—with the petition in the Sacrament of the Sick: May the Lord in His love and mercy (wine), help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit (the oil). May the Lord, who frees you from sin, save you and raise you up. 

We cannot let pass the opportunity to mention St. Jeanne Jugan, whose canonization was announced one year ago, on the day we observed this same celebration.  She emulated our Lord as a prayerful diagnostician and physician, first giving herself to earnest prayer before taking to the poor and neglected, the love and joy of God, social wellbeing, and safe harbor.  Neither can we overlook the personification Christ’s self-sacrifice and humility exhibited by the recently canonized saint, Father Damien de Veuster. In his own case, however, he did not need a doctor to diagnose his incurable leprous condition.

Speaking of leprosy, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta was, from the middle ages, the leading entity that came to the assistance of lepers. Even in modern times, the Order is performing this same work in developing countries in the Americas, in Asia and Africa. The former ambassador of the Order of Malta to Nicaragua, Anthony Valle, told me how the members of the Order there would go in search of people who hid themselves because they had Hansen’s disease, so they could come out and get cured.

Adam and Eve tried to hide from God. We often avoid confronting our spiritual destitution by not taking Jesus’s medicine: the Eight Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are embraced in particular by the Order of Malta with its eight-pointed or octagonal cross.
True-to-life practice of the Beatitudes makes for a hard-hitting regimen. It is far easier to engage in intense sports, do our exercises, fast and keep our diets than to apply the Beatitudes in daily life. But, responding to the challenge of Jesus, validates the ultimate fulfillment of our baptismal covenant.

Then too, St. Paul inspires us with a sure-fire reinforcement for the beatitudes with his description of genuine love in the First Letter to the Corinthians, the 13th chapter: Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; love is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Thirty-one days ago, hardly anyone acknowledged that Haiti existed. Now, all the anguished eyes of the world are upon one half of the Island of Hispaniola. It is in Haiti that the full exercise of the Beatitudes comes into play. The victims and survivors in many cases, exemplify the grasp of their message. Many long-suffering souls have emerged to show us how to have real Faith in the face of the unfathomable mystery of Providence.

Those who have embraced the Haitians with hands-on assistance have embraced, also, the implementation of the Beatitudes. There are two fundamental themes in both the Old and New Testaments: Ordeal and Exodus – Crucifixion and Resurrection. Catastrophe or apocalypse is never the final word, and human beings should never be without hope. Our lady of Perpetual Help, Patroness of Haiti, is in reality, the Sorrowful Mother: for two ministering Angels on this icon, bear the instruments of the Sacred Passion and the Child in her arms foresees the ordeal he shall face.

Indeed, the crucifix is the mirror into which we look for the image of our suffering and all suffering. – Pp. Ben. XVI

Today, we entrust all the afflicted and sick of the world, including ourselves, to the care of Mary who arranges all that we need for our total wellbeing, as Jesus touches us through his Sacrament and the offering of the Eucharist, we will cast ourselves into the arms of the Divine Physician, imploring his merciful and healing grace. Amen.