The above is the photo of the medical students of the batch of 2019, MOSC Medical college, Kolanchery, taken during their orientation week, after they joined the college in June last year.
Yesterday I happened to meet two students of this batch, who came to the college office to enquire about the date of resuming their regular classes and the dates of examination for their first-year examination. It is the fourth month, since their usual classes have been suspended due to the stay at home order on account of COVID 19. Normally, they would have been in their examination season now and longingly waiting to start the clinical years of their training. I saw the awful disappointment in their faces and voice. There is no certainty about the calendar of events for them. It was heavily raining and thundering outside, when I met them. I too was overcome by their disappointment.
I drove home in the rain and by the time I arrived home, rain had ceased. What greeted me on arrival was this sky in twilight hues of colours in the horizon and misty look of the greenery in the valley. (Photo below). The sky overshadowed the expanse of the greenery in the valley. This sight truly lifted my spirit, because brightness and hope returned displacing the disappointment and gloom associated with COVOD 19. Not that gloom is fully behind us, because the mist covered the vegetations. But the horizon, although distant from us, is awakening us to what shall follow on in due season.
What awaited me this morning at dawn, was a spectacular sight on the western horizon (photo below). This golden hue of the cloud in the sky was a prelude to the sunrise in the east.
It was a breath-taking sight, which was a continuation of what I noticed in the sky yesterday evening. The brilliance in the sky gave me a song in my soul,
‘O lord my God,
When I in awesome wonder
consider all the works
Thy hands have made,
I see the stars,
I hear the rolling thunder,
the power through out,
the universe displayed;
Then sings my soul….’
In the following few minutes, the sun had risen, and the cloud had turned almost normal (photo below). The trees were turning green. That is when I realized that gloom and delight are transient experiences. What is normal are the ordinary experiences through which we journey each day. For most of us, it would be a wearisome journey as responsibilities, commitments, problem-solving, decision making, accompanying the staff and their families, managing the finances, coping with the challenges in the hospital, etc.
I began to feel comforted by a new consciousness of the immanent God, who would displace the darkness and the gloom of this season, which most of us feel daily, on account of the pressures coming upon us due to the global circumstance of COVID 19, and its economic and social impact upon us. Seeing the cloud radiantly adorned in the twilight was an unusual moment of delight and gratefulness. It was a sight pregnant with hope!
I had run out of face mask which the hospital provided for the last tow months. I requested a vendor to bring me some masks. This vendor is an enterprising person, who got thirty women together to stitch masks. They learned to stitch and work in three batches. This income sustained them during this difficult season. What was touching was their resolve to provide a mid-day meal to fifty migrant workers who were unemployed for ten weeks now. These women did this from the income they received from selling the masks. These women organised de-addiction programme for five migrant workers who were alcohol dependent.
To me, it was like the story of the poor widow (Mark12:41-43), ‘who came and put in two small copper coins’, into the treasury, while ‘many rich people were putting in large sums’. Jesus of Nazareth had a commendation, ‘..this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury…out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on’(v 43, 44)
Let me suggest that each of you, who lives and works in mission hospitals during this season of considerable demands, is giving all what you have, your presence, time, skills, thought, attention, mindfulness, etc in abundance. You live and give with a similar ethos and outlook of the widow, who was noticed by Jesus. May the words of commendation of Jesus resound in your hearts!
Anna and I remember you fondly and gratefully. You light lamps in the lives of those who come to you and they go back guided in their journey.
We wish it was possible to send you a parcel of Rambutan from our garden! You too might have plenty of fruits in your hospital campuses.
M.C.Mathew (text and photo and the last one by Anna)
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