“Christians must approach those who suffer in an attitude of service, lived with joy”, words quoted by the Augustinian Recollect Santiago Gómez San Román, priest resident in the Getafe’s parish of Our Lady of Buenavista, dedicated as a priority to visiting and accompany the sick of this Parish who request religious services. We have come to ask Santiago to tell us how feels in carrying out this ministry.
“Christians must approach those who suffer in an attitude of service, lived with joy. “Jesus is the model of how to approach the sick. He welcomed them, healed them, cared for them personally. And he invites us saying: “I was sick and you visited me” (Mt 25,36). This is one of the works of mercy in which the Church puts the greatest effort, although it leaves much to be desired.
The visit of Sacramental Jesus to the home of the sick and elderly is considered a blessing and a privilege. Communion during old age, perhaps unable at home, is listen to Christ who says: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will I will relieve” (Mt 11:28). He suffered in his own flesh his agony and cried out to the Father: “Let this cup pass from me”, but he concluded with a test of obedience and fidelity: “not as I will, but as you will” (Mt 26, 39).
What do we do?
The pastoral care of the sick and the elderly contemplates these people in all aspects: the cares for them, visits them, accompanies them and encourages them to maintain a hopeful attitude, always trusting in the merciful love that God has for those who are affected or weakened by disease or age. That love of God is manifested in our visits, bringing them the compassionate comfort and loving accompaniment of our God, rich in mercy for those who suffer in their body and in their soul.
Sick and elderly people are a spiritual treasure for the church and for the world for their faith, love and hope. In this way, they continue to participate in the evangelizing mission of the Church, “preaching” with her life the Good News to friends and acquaintances, to those of her own age and their children and grandchildren.
The Church, through priests and ministers to the sick-elderly, accompanies with affectionate tenderness to those who are suffering from sickness or the natural weakness of the years.
In the Parish of Our Lady of Buenavista, in Getafe, attended by the Augustinians Recollects, daily I visit and take communion to many sick and elderly people, and I realize that they are a small part of all those in the Parish.
Every day, when I wake up, I feel the need to collect the Eucharist from the tabernacle and go, with illusion and encouragement, to take it to the sick and elderly who “touches” every day, to those who have lost mobility and cannot approach the temple.
My testimony
Since I began my experience in caring for the sick and accompanying the elderly, I have gone through several stages that have affected me positively and profoundly as a person and as a priest in dedication, enthusiasm and perfection in the human relations. These people are the presence and image of God in my life thanks to the closeness, good treatment and coexistence with them on a day-to-day basis.
“We don’t like the old.” Old age is considered a contagious disease. We have passed from a gerontocracy to a dictatorship of eternal youth. The culture of discard, of the exclusion of unproductive people. Pope Francis tells us: “The wealth of years is not understood as a blessing of a long life, as a gift, but rather like an unwanted burden. It is the drama of unwanted old age.
The Church, in these times of secularization and rejection of old age, has to become a “field hospital”: it is like the good Samaritan who knows of the fragility and vulnerability of the elderly. We all need these attitudes of closeness, of knowing heal and bandage the wounds and raise the fallen.
The exercise of this ministry, as a priest, in our society, creates new relations of progressive and deep friendship with the elderly and sick. It is something that produces me satisfaction and well-being.
Sometimes I wonder why the weekly treatment increases and consolidates a friendship that generates trust, sympathy and affection, from which a special affection emerges. And is that I see myself reflected in that Jesus of Nazareth, who, visiting towns, listened and He helped so many sick people to recover their faith and hope.
The sick and the elderly can be accompanied in their moments of depression, of solitude and comforted in God and before the proximity of his death. The frequent visits of relatives, the accompaniment of the priest, the sacraments become aids real for the acceptance of their suffering.
First Encounter
The first encounter with the patient is, for my part, full of fear and uncertainty: what will he tell me? Fear of not knowing what to do, what to talk about… The need to discuss concerns, uncertainties, doubts and fears.
At the beginning, the patients gradually discover the convenience of receiving the priest, it is my case, and communion to the point of becoming a necessity. They are pending the day, of the hour, of the arrival of the priest, bearer of the Blessed Sacrament, to speak with him and tell him how they are, his state of health, the situation of his family and the desire for Communion seeking God’s help.
Little by little they accept the disease with resignation and the proximity of death, trusting in the mercy of God as a merciful Father. It is all an internal process, with its ups and downs and difficulties, but little by little they find calm, rest, resignation, and they put their lives in the hands of God: “whatever God wants”, “whenever God wants”.
Reception of the priest by the families of the sick
In this pastoral service we also encounter problems and difficulties: discomfort to the family,
family disagreements, economic expenses, lack of attention from the family, doubts, insecurity…, in the end a lot of suffering.
Some of the relatives of the patients tend to have a cold behavior, somewhat indifferent. They fail to understand how important it is for the sick and elders, the visit of the priest. Open the door. Greeting; I ask: how are you, how have you been? And they invite me in.
The family has a hard time understanding what Communion means for the sick. Without however, most of them, when you haven’t come, tell me what the patient says with the family: Why hasn’t the father come this week? Will he be sick? Is he away? They greatly feel the need to be and talk with the priest, discuss the gospel, pray…
I repeatedly hear the sick say: “Father, thank you very much for bringing me to the Lord, the Communion” and, with a certain smile and some complicity, they add: “and to you for bringing me Jesus home”.
Concerns of the elderly and sick
Among other sufferings and problems that I find in the sick and elderly is that they have fear of pain, fear of death, fear of the afterlife. They suffer from anxiety, sadness and loneliness. They suffer from cognitive deterioration, limitations of all kinds… They look for someone to listen to them, understand and accompany… someone to help them in those circumstances.
Thanks to the lord, I constantly thank the Lord for having favored me with this mission, which has been entrusted to me. entrusted, and it makes me feel useful, happy and fulfilled in the pastoral work of the sick and elderly.
The Lord frequently questions me, corrects me, advises me through them, andencourages, above all, to continue working with greater dedication and commitment. Every sick I edifie and touch.
