White Mass: Called to heal the sick

/By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
  
Bishop John E. Keehner presided at the fourth annual White Mass at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City Oct. 21. The White Mass was established in the 1930s to honor, thank and pray for those working in the healthcare field. It was named to reflect the customary white coats and uniforms worn by healthcare workers.
 Active and retired healthcare professionals from around the Sioux City area gathered for the Mass. Several retired nurses donned their traditional starched nurses’ caps and uniforms with ceremonial capes to form an honor guard. The Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus were also present.
 
Joining the bishop at the altar were Bishop Emeritus Walker Nickless, hospital chaplains Father Gus Peter and Father Anthony Nwudah, area physician Deacon Tom Morgan, Cathedral rector Father David Esquiliano, retired priests Father Larry Burns and Father Roger Linnan and Deacon Bruce Chartier.
 
“Thank you for your tireless and often unseen efforts,” Bishop Keehner addressed the healthcare workers in attendance. “And we thank you in the best way that we can and that’s in our prayers.”
 
St. Luke
The bishop noted in his homily that the church officially celebrates St. Luke the Evangelist on his Oct. 18 feast day and that “we celebrate him again today with this so-called White Mass in which we honor physicians, nurses, medical technicians, pharmacists, therapists, and all who work in the medical professions.”
 
The author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke was a physician and is known as the patron saint of physicians and surgeons, the bishop pointed out.

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“He spent his life caring for the sick, working to heal physical illnesses and wounds,” Bishop Keehner said. “All of that changed, however, when he met St. Paul and listened to the words of the Gospel which Paul proclaimed. It is then that St. Luke saw the importance of healing not just bodies but also souls, undertaking the important work of writing down the Gospel message which had been proclaimed to him.”

 Bishop KeehnerHealthcare workers are called by Christ to care for the needs of their fellow man. 

“We honor them, in effect, for taking up the call of Jesus to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, to nurse the sick and to bring healing to a world that is so desperately in need of healing,” Bishop Keehner said.
 
The Gospel reading for the Mass was from Luke 10:1-9 where Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs “with one clear mission – to heal the sick.” The bishop stressed that Christ calls all the baptized to heal the sick, proclaim the good news and heal souls.
 
“He calls upon each of us to do our part in caring for those who are physically ill, whether that means caring for members of our own families who are in need of healing or making it our life’s mission to care for the sick on a larger scale,” Bishop Keehner said.
 
In Pope Leo XIV’s first exhortation, Dilexi Te, which was just released, the bishop pointed out that the Holy Father addresses the call to heal the sick.
 
“…the Christian presence among the sick reveals that salvation is not an abstract idea but concrete action. In the act of healing a wound, the church proclaims that the Kingdom of God begins among the most vulnerable. In doing so, she remains faithful to the one who said, ‘I was sick and you visited me.’ When the church kneels beside a leper, a malnourished child or an anonymous dying person, she fulfills her deepest vocation: to love the Lord where he is most disfigured,’” from #52 of Dilexi Te.
 
In addition to praying for those who are ill and dying, the bishop stressed that the faithful should pray for those who care for the sick as their vocation for their strength and perseverance, as well as for the needs of all humanity.
 
 “Through the intercession of the great physician and saint, Luke the Evangelist … who highlighted for us the great mystery of God’s love for the poor and the sick, may we come to better understand how Jesus calls us to go out into the world in order to heal the sick, in order to heal the world,” the bishop concluded.

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