PCCB’s Sheehan gives homily at Rose Mass for health care workers

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Myles N. Sheehan, SJ, MD, director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, David Lauler Professor of Health Care Ethics, and professor of medicine, was the homilist in the annual Rose Mass honoring health care workers on March 30 at the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda.

The Catholic Standard reported:

In his homily at the Rose Mass, Jesuit Father Myles N. Sheehan – a priest and medical doctor who serves as the director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, where he is also a professor of medicine – reflected on the Parable of the Prodigal Son from that day’s Gospel reading from Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.

That parable, he said, is a story of being welcomed home, of being lost and found, and reflects the love and mercy of God the Father, and how when people make mistakes in their lives, “Jesus wants to bring you home… and to know your hurts and your wounds can be healed and forgiven,” like the father in the parable did as he ran out to embrace the prodigal son.

Father Sheehan said that those in the health professions who care for the sick may sometimes need care themselves, and may feel like the elder son in the parable, who was resentful when the father held a banquet for the wayward son after he returned home.

“We work hard. We put up with a lot. We can end up feeling burned out. We can be angry about our profession, and we can be disappointed that we’ve given up so much,” he said.

But the priest added that Jesus, who is known as the Divine Physician, has a prescription, a suggested treatment, an intervention and a plan of care for people in the healing professions.

“What is the medicine Jesus is giving us here (in this parable)?” Father Sheehan asked, and then said, “He’s offering us the Father’s love, whether we really messed up in extraordinary ways, or whether we tried really hard and feel deeply overburdened, turning bitter and questioning our commitments… Today Jesus is offering you the Father’s love. He’s inviting you to a celebration that will last forever.”

Concluding his homily, the priest said, “Jesus knows you through and through, and let today’s Mass be healing for the healers. He forgives your wrongdoing. He knows the ways you hurt… Jesus has a clear prescription for us today. Accept the invitation to come to this party of divine love.”

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