Visitation 2009

My most recent trip to the Hospital was on Wednesday, May 13. I was there for the birth of my son Nicholas. I didn’t stay overnight, but my wife did for two days. While we were there, Fr. Smith, came over and visited us. His visit, just like the visits made by the clergy here when our first son was born, was greatly appreciated.

It doesn’t matter why someone is in the hospital: in my experience it makes an enormous difference to the person who is being visited. When you or I visit someone in the hospital or someone who is sick or even someone who is going through difficult times, it can make all the difference in the world. Like Mary bringing our Lord to visit her cousin Elizabeth, I believe that all such visitations have the potential of making the recipient of the visit unexpectedly leap for joy inside; they have the potential of suddenly making Christ present and making room for the Holy Spirit to do something amazing.

Maybe the connection is too obvious. On the feast of the Visitation, the priest reminded the congregation that it is important for all Christians to know that visiting people who are sick is important, but I can tell you, as a priest, it is a reminder that I sometimes need to hear, and when Fr. Smith visited us, I once again remembered what it was like to be on the other side of a visitation.

For the record, Fr. Smith didn’t just miraculously find us in the hospital. He knew we had gone because we told him that we were going to the hospital. I cannot read minds, and as far as I know, the other clergy here cannot read minds either. If you end up in the hospital, and if you want one of the priests or sisters of anyone at all to visit you, it helps if you make it known that you are actually in the hospital.

Maybe that also seems obvious, but I have had the some version of the following conversation more than a few times since I have been a priest:

“How come you didn’t visit so and so in the hospital?”

“I had no idea so and so was in the hospital!? What happened? How did you find out he was in the hospital?”

“He told me. He was in the hospital for a week and nobody visited him.”

“Well, nobody told me.”

“Oh I assumed you knew.”

Assuming that the priest will visit you is great. Asking for the priest to visit you is better.

The Feast of the Visitation can serve as a reminder of two things: When I need someone else, it helps to ask loudly and clearly. When someone asks for my presence, whether or not I know it, as part of the Body of Christ, I do not come alone, like Mary and all of the Saints, I bring the presence of Christ with me. And so do you.