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Connections&
February 11, 2001-- Sixth Sunday of the Year
"Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours...but woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation." Luke 6:17, 20-26
A life in medicine
Dr. Bill Davis is a young doctor with an old-fashioned country approach to medicine: for one thing, he likes making house calls. Carrying his battered, black medical bag, he often rides his son's bike along the back roads in the rural towns of California where his patients live, spending an hour or so sitting at the bed or at the kitchen table trying to get to the bottom of what's ailing them.
His approach has put him at odds with the HMO who paid his salary. The HMO felt his one-on-one style wasn't good business, insisting that he see as many as six patients an hour. After six years of frustration and fighting, the 47-year-old physician, calling himself a "conscientious objector" to managed health care, quit his job last summer.
"I got tired of watching patients having to wait for oxygen or pain relief" because of HMO requirements and paperwork. "I became a thorn in their side because their big-city brand of medicine wasn't doing justice to people in this town."
Doctor Davis was prepared to leave medicine all together--save for what his patients did next. On the day he quit, dozens of his patients lined up outside his old office to cheer him on. Then they banded together to form a nonprofit health-care foundation that would allow Doctor Davis to practice medicine as he saw fit. Volunteers refurbished an office in the heart of town in what residents proudly refer to as an old-fashioned barn-raising. The new health care clinic will mainly treat poor and Medicaid patients, charging on a sliding scale what patients can afford.
The new practice is not without risk to Doctor Davis and his family. He will forgo a salary for the first year, making money tight for his family. But his wife and sons agree that it is worth the gamble.
"We'll live out of a van if we have to," said his wife, Wendy. "It's so liberating to do what you believe in. Now Bill's eyes light up when he talks about his patients. He's become a real doctor again."
[The Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2000.]
CONNECTION: In Luke's Sermon on the Plain, Jesus challenges everything our consumer-driven, me-first, bottom-line-oriented society holds dear: Wealth and power are not the stuff of the reign of God, but humility, selflessness and compassion are the treasures of the city of God. Today's Gospel challenges us to embrace a new vision, a new attitude in approaching life: to seek the common good before our own needs and interests; to bring compassion and forgiveness to others despite our own anger, hurts and unease; to free ourselves from the pursuit of the things of this world in order to seek the lasting things of God.v
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