Why any priest should consider himself blessed to be a full time Hospital Chaplin!!

Jesus taught sanctified and  healed. This 3 fold mission is also the mission of every priest. Most priest see this as their mission and are happy to come into the hospital to visit a sick person from their parish. But many priests are not as enthused to be a full time hospital chaplain.

I want to give at least a few reasons, as there are many more reasons, why a priest should consider himself blessed to be a full time hospital chaplain.

Next month I will be 8 years in this position. On my first day going to the hospital from my last parish, St Timothy, after Mass as I am leaving to go to my new assignment, I pick up the bible at random and see what verse I open up to.  In this case it was the book of Sirach, which interesting enough tells us to reference the physician. But in this case, my eyes fell on this verse ‘prepare the healing before you get sick.’  Which is a perfect image for Anointing of the Sick as praying that the sick person not only get healing, but doesn’t get sick in the first place.

I saw this scripture played out during the covid years at the hospital. I never once got sick during the covid years, as if God was protecting me as well as me taking the necessary precautions.

Jesus says to do the one thing necessary. One of the dangers in the priesthood is that priests have too much freedom. That is not a problem in the hospital. Your life is the hospital. Because you are always on call (minus days off and vacation), you know what you are about. One of my personality defects is that I am a people-pleaser, and it is very hard for me to say I can’t do something without feeling guilty. Well, knowing that you are always on call at the hospital, it is easier to say no to a request if it conflicts with my work at the hospital. Holiness is doing God’s Will and anything that conflicts with that is not God’s Will. So as hospital Chaplin, you know what you are about.

You are mission territory at the hospital. You don’t know what each day holds. In fact, you can feel like an army Chaplain as you give Last Rites to 3 people in the span of only an hour, and in the same day baptize and confirm a dying baby or adult. You have many grace-filled experiences. On average, I am at the bed side of 1 to 3 people every day who are actively dying. What better way to spend your day as priest.

I have learned about surrender and divine providence, as you never know when that pager will ever go off, maybe 4 pm, maybe 11 pm, maybe 1 am.  Maybe 8 pm, 11 pm and 3 pm in the same night and morning, and still checking in at 9am to do your rounds. As you give your life to the hospital, God does stretch you but it does seem to hold together. One of the things I am most proud of is that in 8 years, there has not been a single page that went unanswered.  I think this is a small miracle, helped by the fact that I made myself as ready as human possible. But you do learn to trust.

You meet lots of different people in the hospital. You might meet every type of person and family member, and political view. It is a great place for people to have a good encounter with the priest. People are always grateful for the priest who went to visit them at the hospital.

You see miracles and healing, on a weekly basis, with the thousands of people you anoint. It only makes sense that you will see lots of miracles and as you see them, your faith grows more and you expect to see more as your faith grows.

You work with people of many different faith. So you learn to work together and see the world through their faith experiences.

Another reason. The Church, like the world, is divided, and many priests are caught up in this division in the world. People have their own concerns that they think are most important and if the priest doesn’t see the world or preach the way that they think he ought to, he is labeled this or that.  In the Hospital, I get to do 95 percent ministry to the ill, suffering, and dying.  You are going to give Last Rites to a person who request it, and their personal feeling about this or that are secondary.

Because I have anointed thousands of people, given Last Rites, Confession etc to thousand of people, I will meet people for the rest of my life all over the country and world where I will hear ‘You are Fr. Stefan, you gave my wife Last Rites in Sept 2016 when I called you. She died that night but I am eternally grateful that you gave her the sacraments before she died.’

I like to think there are thousands of souls in Heaven praying for me right now because  I was there when they died, and I have to think there are at least a few souls, if not more, that are in Heaven rather than Hell, as they received the sacraments as they lay dying and as I and the family prayed the chaplet of Divine Mercy, and as I put a brown scapular on them.. The value of single soul is eternal to God.

These are a least of few of the reasons why any priest ought to think himself blessed to work and be full time chaplain in the hospital.