Armed Forces Day

I salute all of you who have served or are currently serving in any branch of the Armed Forces. I find you heroic and doing all those things the rest of us do not wish to do. And often at great sacrifice.

How dare I salute you? Though not in uniform, I served the Armed Forces for 12 years and according to the Department of Defense, had I been in uniform I would have had the rank of an Admiral (though I didn’t deserve it). So I salute you. For those among you who do not understand the salute, the lesser rank salutes the greater which says “Loyalty given” The greater rank in returning the salute says “Loyalty returned.” That really means a great deal to me—there is so little loyalty today outside of the military.

Let me tell you about my twelve years. There were the best twelve years of my life. I worked as a doctor for the Armed Forces Medical School, called The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, abbreviated USUHS, and nicknamed USELESS.

These Medical Students worked twice as hard as any other Medical Students, for not only did they learn the routine things one learns at Georgetown or EVMS, but they learned how to be an officer, all about world wide diseases and how to set up a MASH unit. The AMA accreditation committee told USUHS that they were working their students too hard. But there was no way around that. It was not an unusual site to see them scaling down the sides of the building, doing pushups in the hallways, or marching in formation in the streets of the campus.

Though I had taught the Medical Students, I had more connection with the residents in training and the doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed Army Hospital, NIH and the Armed Forces of Pathology. And I loved it.

There were perks, such as being a Medical Consultant to five of the Presidents of the United States. (Told a story about Reagan).

The perk of being accompanied by a military guard through the hospital to meet any VIP, such as Mubarak.( Told a story)

The military can be very efficient when it needs to be. Take the first Gulf War. I walked into a normal hospital one Wednesday. The next Thursday, the 300 plus patients were all discharged to other hospitals or home. Friday, all personal were having their shots updated and lawyers were present to transfer power-of attorney. Saturday, 800 medical personal were on the ship, The Comfort, heading for the Gulf. I took vacation. When I returned
a week later, patients were back in the hospital and 800 reservists were in place. And none of them were complaining. They actually had a good time and after returning to their practices, some would come back once a month to teach the residents.

But that doesn’t really tell you why I liked it so much. The order created in the services leads to wonderful things—loyalty (leave no man behind), honor and respect. And those attributes permeated every day. And camaraderie developed. And most of these people became or are friends for life.

In all the institutions I have worked in outside of the military, it was unusual to find these qualities. Think about your big corporations, especially recently. Have you witnessed loyalty, honor, respect, deep friendship.

Let’s come locally. It’s a war zone over at some hospitals, without armed forces. Go to the ER and you are greeted by a police officer. No one can visit someone in the ER, unless you show an ID, are photographed with a serial number. Very welcoming. Even priests can’t get past the barricade.
Some doctors do not treat the patient with respect and some patients have come to disrespect their doctor—not all, but some. There is not much teamwork between the doctors and the other care providers. This is not so in the military. The officer and non-commissioned officers must work as a team.

The color of the skin is not a problem in the military. It often is in our world.

Well, we had a gospel reading today, so I’d better bring it in. After all, we are in a church learning the good news from the gospel. A centurion is commander of 100 men in a Roman Legion. They make a relative small class of people governing the military. A centurion can tell almost anyone what to do and he must do it. Messengers from this centurion came to Jesus, delivering the centurion’s message: “that he was not worthy to have Jesus in his home.” I think in my own way that he was saluting Jesus—he was showing him loyalty, certainly honor and certainly respect. And Jesus responded, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith”. He certainly honored him and respected him.

I believe that Jesus would ask that behavior of us all toward everyone. Let us show loyalty, honor and respect to all. AMEN

Love Yourself

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself”
Question?
What are the two most important words of the second commandment?

“As yourself” Do you love yourself? Do you love yourself?
For if you don’t love yourself you cannot love your neighbor . If you do not love yourself, you cannot love your neighbor.

It is said that every religion shares the Golden Rule. However, the Golden
Rule is usually stated as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you” or ” Treat others as you would have them treat you”. I find both of
these rules easier to follow than the one Jesus gave us. Both of these have
action verbs, “do” and “treat”, which are much clearer than “love”. “Love” is difficult to define exactly. Each of us would have a different meaning.

In our particular society we tend to live with feelings of failure,
inadequacy, helplessness, lack of control, self hatred and yearning for
something better. We tend to ignore our gifts, our successes, our good
qualities, our joy. In order to love yourself requires true self knowledge.

Ten days ago, Jim Bickford ran a terrific seminar on steps you could take to
truly know yourself and then perhaps to love yourself. How to accept your
short comings and love them, as well as loving the wonderful things about
yourself. You are truly missing something when you don’t attend his seminar
on Wednesdays.

I personally believe that one of the first steps in loving yourself is
understanding that God loves you. After all, if you were known to God before you were born and you are first and for most God’s child, then you must be loved by God. Perhaps you have had no trouble understanding this, but I sure did.

Through the early ’80s, I truly believed that if I worked hard enough, God
would love me the Pelagian part of me. Well, it didn’t work. I never felt
God’s love. In 1984 my father died. He was a very significant person in my
life and still is. His death along with other surrounding difficult
circumstances threw me into a depression. A psychiatrist got me through the
crisis, but then I asked the psychiatrist if he thought I needed further
help. Wanting my money, he said “yes”. I told him that I wanted to work on my relationship with God, for I felt that that relationship stunk. Now this
was the era of Freud, so naturally he said he couldn’t help me. So I left
and was directed to a Pastoral Counselor.

Now I had never known of such an entity, but she saved my life and I have been recommending Pastoral Counseling ever since. The first day I went to her she asked me if God loved everyone? I said “yes” Then she asked if God loved me? I answered her absolutely honestly, NO. Then she asked “Well what makes you so special to be picked out by God from all the millions of people not to be loved? I had no answer.

The next day I was with a colleague of mine who teaches residents in
radiology with me. He was complaining about a resident who just wasn’t
learning anything. I said that it sounded like the resident just didn’t
want to learn. He said “Yes, it’s kind of like God. He loves you, but if
you aren’t open to His love, you’ll never know His love.

I had a lot of work to do. Now my brain knew His love for me, but my heart
didn’t feel it. Yet opening up to it, it came. To this day, I remember the
first moment I caught that glimpse of his love and than I began to love
myself.

I was given a book this summer called “the boy who saved my life.” It was
written by a grandfather. He describes his life as follows: “I had not desire to continue living, save to carry out my responsibilities. I endured. I felt inadequate. Laughter was a stranger. Beauty was hidden. As I looked inside of me, I couldn’t find a life I wanted to live. As for my soul, my essence, my reason to be…I think I had forgotten about it. That deepest part of me had receded into the shadows. Except for my family, whom I loved, and those whom I counseled in my psychotherapy practice, to whom I was dedicated, I shut people out. I had given up on hope. For whatever reasons, I thought I would die within the next few years. That is simply how I felt.”

Then his grandson Charlie was born. At age 2 and 1/2, Charlie stopped talking and stopped looking at people. He stopped responding and was diagnosed as autistic. The Grandfather then says, “I was suddenly overwhelmed with my desperate need to reach Charlie. I understood that I must enter Charlie’s world. I knew I had to come out of my dark world to meet him in his world. Together we had to walk out into the light of a better world.”

“Charlie brought into my life the wonder of bright sunshine and fresh air. He gave me new life. He rescued my soul.”

Slowly they did various things together, sitting together on the floor or on the couch, then engaging in activities. When Charlie began to talk, he said “I don’t know what I would do without myself. I really like myself.” And the grandfather learned to love himself. He discovered his soul.

Get to know the true you. Discover your soul. Accept that God loves you.
Love yourself and then love your neighbor. Amen