The Book of Wisdom says, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being….” Then, in the next verse we read, “there is not a destructive drug among them….” My fulltime job is as the pastoral care director at a retirement center. I also do some part-time work as a hospital chaplain. I see dying and death up close, along with the value of drugs to help prolong life. However, it often seems that we chaplains must justify our existence. The focus tends to be on medicine and medical care only.

It has not always been this way. In the year 369, there was a famine that encompassed the diocese led by St. Basil of Caesarea (in modern day Turkey). Bishop Basil encouraged the rich to support his efforts to begin a soup kitchen where soup and meat were supplied to the hungry. This effort was so successful that by 372, a hospital had been erected. It was staffed with doctors, nurses, and those who aided them in their work. Basil knew the value of prayer for healing but he also believed that God healed through medicine and medical support. Chaplains did not have to justify their role in the hospital. In fact, Basil had to argue with fellow Christians about the role of doctors and nurses. He believed what the Book of Wisdom said about the value of drugs, and he wanted his hospital staff to be educated on their proper use. Beginning this very first hospital in world history grew out of his compassion for the poor, the sick, including lepers, and travelers. It began a movement that was largely taken up by the monasteries and has led to the hospitals that we have today.

In the second reading, St. Paul writes to the Corinthian church about the need to take up a collection for the church in Judea which was experiencing a severe famine. He presents Jesus as the model. He was rich but became poor for the good of others. However, supporting those starving Christians in Judea was not a one-way street. They had something to give to the Corinthians. Judea needed financial support; the Corinthians needed their prayers. In the words of St. Clare of Assisi, that is “a laudable exchange.” I do not know about others, but I am more likely to need your prayers than your money.

The Gospel lesson is well known. Jesus heals a synagogue official’s daughter and a woman who had a flow of blood and had exhausted her finances in seeking healing. The part of the story that always makes me smile is where, after the 12-year-old dead child is brought back to life, Jesus tells them to get her something to eat. God is concerned about the basic needs of his children. Whether it is the need for soup and meat, prayer, the proper use of drugs, medical care, or basic human compassion, our God cares about us.

As the psalmist says, “You changed my mourning into dancing; O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.”