It’s time to change

On Ash Wednesday, the start of Lenten season, we are asked, Christians, by our church authorities to devote time to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Fr. Fausto Gomez, OP, of UST in his article “The journey of Lent,” he stated that “the classical penances help us to reestablish and fortify our relationship with God through  prayer, with ourselves through fasting and abstinence, and with others particularly the poor through almsgiving. Prayer leads to fasting, to mercy and sharing something with the marginalized of our society.“

In an atmosphere of silence around us during this season, we tend to reexamine and cleanse ourselves by repenting for our sins and its ill-effects like pride, arrogance, selfishness, hatred, self-centeredness and many others. Confessing them to reconcile with God and the people we have wronged or wronged us, we hope God forgive as we forgive each other. With God’s grace and blessing after receiving the Holy Communion, we feel well, whole and happy. We regain peace of mind with God and our neighbor. Thus, self-denial, fasting and abstinence, sharing with the poor and needy, avoiding sin, loving and forgiving each other as God’s children make us better Christians with peace, joy and vigor to live well and to share for the common good.

The wonderful power of Lent to heal us prompts me to share as a physician over the years any time of my life, my observation that many are healed during Lent. There are fewer consultations, sick people, emergencies like stroke, heart attack and the like, untimely death, accidents and even crimes unlike during Christmas season and occasions of the year when people tend to overeat and to have more fun. Indeed, Lent prevents us from getting sick by being sober and relaxed that normalizes and balances our body functions. It enables us, therefore, to live and work in conformity with God’s will. Hopeless cases of patients like cancer and known diseases difficult to treat, patients who were prayed over are miraculously cured and healed that surprised their doctors. Patients with diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, anxiety neurosis, insomnia and some incurable skin diseases improve even without treatment if not completely cured. Lifestyle modification or lifestyle change as advised by physicians especially when the patient is converted, at last, to take the road back to God who knows what is best for us, the patient is  healed.

Hence, time and again over the years, this writer’s advocacy of “a holistic approach” in healthcare, to treat the patient as a whole person body, mind and spirit, signifies that the system is to cure not only the physical sickness but to heal as well the mental and spiritual component. A little explanation and counseling with empathy and compassion relieve the patient’s stresses of fear, worry or any nagging problem. As a whole, the patient benefits from an amazing healing.

We, physicians, are God’s instruments in healing the sick. Jesus Christ, a divine physician is known as the number one Healer of all time. Thus, improving our relationship with God through prayers and following His teachings through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Role Model; with His humility and obedience to His Father in heaven regardless of passion, death in the cross, He resurrected and triumphed over sin and death. Likewise, we Christians, by being humble and obedient to God’s will not only during Lent, we shall triumph as well over our sin, sickness and evil forces in our midst with our moral courage to carry on our daily cross in our duties and dealings with our fellowmen. Indeed, we should be thankful to God and His Son, Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, for the hundredfold blessings we have through emulating Him as our Savior for a lifetime.

Happy  Easter  to  all! —JOSE S. BULALACAO, MD, Barangay Bungad, SFDM, Quezon City