Living Monstrance

When I first began volunteering in 2002 as a Minister of Holy Communion in a Boston hospital, one of the first patients I visited was Dan.  It was clear to me that Dan had a physical disability - his body wasn’t straight, and his arms and hands were undersized and poorly formed.  He also didn’t have full control of his body, so sometimes his arms would flail unexpectedly.  He was about my age at the time - early 30’s - and he seemed depressed.  By the looks on the faces on the nurses, I got the sense that his attitude was a handful for them.

He wasn’t particularly religious, but he welcomed me in with the Lord.  We would talk about the Red Sox and Celtics and Patriots.  Although other patients came and went, he was there in his room for a long stay.  I would come by a couple of times a month and talk about sports or whatever.  He always welcomed me with the Lord into his room.  He never turned Us away.

Now Dan had a laptop computer that he used, and he spent a long time on it.  I decided one day that I would pick up a video for him.  I don’t remember now what it was - I think it was a Patriots championship video - but when I gave it to him, he seemed very pleased.  That was the last time I visited him.  He left the hospital shortly afterwards.

Five years later, in response to what I believed the Lord desired, I began to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet for the sick and dying in the hospital.  On one of my first days doing this, I had finished for the day, had put my coat on, and was about to leave, when I re-checked a patient list and noticed his name.  “Wow,” I thought.  “I haven’t seen him in a long time.  I’ll go by and visit.  I wonder how he’s doing.  I wonder if he’ll remember me.”

With my coat still on, I went up to his room.  When I got near, I realized something.  He was in the intensive care unit.  Now, I know those room numbers for the ICU, but for some reason it never registered with me when I saw his room number on paper.  Anyway, I entered the hallway and found his little room.

When I saw him, he was unrecognizable.  He had so many tubes and wires coming out of him, and he seemed, well, swollen.  I asked the nurse in the hallway how he was doing.

She said softly, “He only has a few hours to live.”

Suddenly, I understood.  I understood why I had been sent to him 5 years earlier.  Remember what the Lord said to His disciples?: “He that receives you, receives me, and he that receives me receives him who sent me.” (Mt 10:40)  Dan had always received me.

As I entered his room and stood by his bedside and began to pray the chaplet, I understood that the Lord was now giving him his reward, as I recalled His promise to St. Faustina: “when [souls] say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the merciful Savior (Diary, 1541).”

At the very last moment, after years of toil, the Good Shepherd had found His lost sheep.

We may not quite know what God is doing in our life.  We may think things aren’t working out, we may even think things are hopeless.  We may not really know why He calls us to this or to that.  But He has a great plan.  All He wants is for us to receive Him.

And He always keeps His Word.