A Than ksgiving Reflection
( As presented by Dr. Lynn Satterly at the Cathedral Thanksgiving day Mass- 2008)
Every evening before going to sleep, Dorothy Day would pray from the depth of her being, “God provides.” Every morning, she would awaken and live from the truth of that prayer as she, the matriarch and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, fed and lived in community with the poor of NYC from 1933 until 1980 when she died peacefully in her bedroom of Maryhouse, one of the Catholic Worker Houses where the homeless found shelter, food, and an identity. Dorothy, raised in a solidly middle class family, made a deliberate and daily choice, after what proved to be an authentic experience of spiritual conversion. She decided to live a life of non-violence in solidarity with those who were vulnerable. A read through any portion of her voluminous writings would lead one to conclude this was a life lived from a place of deep gratitude as opposed to a sense of entitlement or guilt, and a life lived in response to the sense of having all she needed –even in the context of the personal challenges and losses in her own life. This lead her to enter into authentic relationship with others and to work to create a world where it was “easier for people to be good”, and where people could remember their inherent worth, even in the face of poverty, unemployment, societal dysfunction, physical, and mental illness. In her young adulthood, Dorothy lived the life of a bohemian intellectual in NYC and worked as a reporter for a socialist newspaper covering labor and women’s suffrage issues in the 1920s. As she saw the realities of the human condition, she found no answers in the superficial or even the material. She was, to make a long story short, drawn deeper into the transcendent and the enduring. Through this, and much to the bewilderment of her friends, family and even herself at times, she recognized in herself what Rev. Andrew Greely later called the Catholic Imagination, a sense of the holy and transcendent in the world, drawing us from superficial distractions to that which is infinitely meaningful and greater than ourselves. This recognition lead to her denounce socialism and to convert to Catholicism. She lived passionately for others, considered herself rich, and died deeply grateful. Dorothy was buried in a pine box in a simple cemetery in Staten Island with the simple epitaph “friend of the poor.” It is said that much of NYC, and all of the lower East Side, paused for a few hours on the day of her simple funeral and Mass of Christian burial. The story is told that as the casket was carried down the street in the funeral procession, a disheveled, mentally ill, homeless man burst through the crowd, which included Church and civic leaders, kissed and embraced the casket, and again disappeared into oblivion.
Much can be learned from Dorothy. Although it is not likely that any of us will make such a dramatically radical lifestyle choice, we can make a radical choice to create a world “where it is easier for people to be good”. The witness of Dorothy’s life left behind a road map of how to live a deeply fulfilling life with and for others…a life of Eucharist in the truest sense, a life of thanksgiving and of communion. Dorothy’s life shows that when all is said and done, when all is stripped away, one of the key things that gives life meaning is people and the quality of relationship that we share with each other. We also learn from Dorothy Day that we might not always get what we want, but that if we live from a place of gratitude and a sense of having enough, we can ensure that everyone gets what they need (I recall a Rolling Stones song with a paraphrase of this as a lyric.). In this era of the Holy Spirit, together we are Christ in the world. We, like Dorothy Day, have a legacy to live.
Amaus Health Services at the Cathedral is in its second year of providing health care and related services to the socially vulnerable as we train future health care professionals in this work. We have our own stories of abundance and gratitude, of God’s provision.
Tom came to us in pain and afraid, homeless, and uninsured for a while and fearful that he was having angina that would lead to a fatal heart attack. We’ll call him Tom for the sake of confidentiality. He needed a cardiac work up but every time he went to the ER, he would be dispensed with and discharged and given a few pain meds and told that his pain was not cardiac. Tom can be a rather imposing figure who became verbally aggressive when frightened and I understood the dynamic that lead to the speedy discharge. Now he was in our clinic making me a more than a little uncomfortable and scaring the medical students. My first response was to dispense and discharge but in a moment of wisdom, I went deeper within, took a deep breath, looked into his eyes, and listened. I heard the story of a bright man with a rough life who, not unlike any other 50 something man, was fearful that his chest pain would be cardiac and eventually take him out of the proverbial game. We did the work up with the help of a generous cardiologist who donated his services, and ruled out cardiac disease and diagnosed mild rheumatoid arthritis. The arthritis was subsequently effectively treated. After an unexpected hospital stay and a visit from our staff during that stay, Tom had a metanoia. He returned one day, feeling well to say thank you and to ask to volunteer. Stunned I sputtered, “Sure, if you are feeling well enough.” Tom stated that the staff had treated him in a way that he had never been treated, like he was the mayor or something. He said he was totally stunned that people would treat such a surly dude who was mean and suspicious, for free no less, with such kindness and respect. He perceived that the staff had really listened to him and cared if he lived or died. And he was moved deeply by the visit when he was in the hosptial. He said this all had a profound effect on him. He had always distrusted and disliked people but these experiences made him begin to think differently. He went on to say that he began to believe that maybe God was at work and present in this world. He said that he concluded that if we could see goodness and dignity in him, he would begin to look for it in others. He looked and lo, he began to see it. Thus he was coming back to volunteer. He declared that he wanted to help others recognize that they are worthy of Love. God provides and God is a God of delightful surprises and generosity.
At Amaus we have come to believe that there is no coincidence, only Providence. We recognize that the transcendent provides for our tangible needs at the clinic. There are many daily examples that leave even those who think that they lack faith scratching their intellectual heads. I’ll share only one very salient one today. We had a patient who was in great need of a very expensive medication. We had enough in our sample closet to tide this patient over for a few weeks until the insurance kicked in. A few weeks later, the patient called to say that the insurance approval was delayed and that the medication would be gone tomorrow . That night, I lay awake in bed wondering what I might have that could serve as a reasonable substitute, or how, on such short notice, I might be able to obtain an affordable quantity of this medication which costs $700.00-$900.00 dollars a month. As I finally drifted into sleep, I audibly muttered, “God will provide”. For good measure, I invoked my friend, Dorothy Day, as well. I kid you not, on the next day, the drug rep for this particular medication, showed up with three inches of snow on his lapels and said, “Hey Doc, I was passing by and could not find a parking space but I could not pass Amaus by. I think I am illegally parked in the bishop’s spot, but here I am. I have a trunk full of thus and so drug, might you need any?” Not only was it the exact brand that the patient needed but also the exact dose in a quantity that held the patient long enough. Do I think that God’s generosity was incarnated that day and that the patient was given just what was needed? Absolutely. Did the drug rep get a ticket? He did not.
And so on this Thanksgiving in these uncertain times, may we live from what is certain: Love, other-centered relationship, and the Spirit of Christ among us. With such priorities, we will always have all that we truly need, for in us and in our lived faith, God truly dose and will provide. Happy Thanksgiving.
In the Spirit of Love- Lynn-Beth Satterly, M.D., Medical Director of Amaus Health Services at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
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