Editorial – Spring 2024 FOCUS
Stéphanie Potter
Read the entire magazine at https://cmdacanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-March-44.1-web.pdf
How many times have we been gathered with our fellow Christians and someone has declared with frustration, “What is this world coming to?” I’ve heard it so often, that it feels like the refrain to a psalm of lament. And we can’t help but keep lamenting, because we’ve been given the eyes to see the brokenness and fallenness of the world. The consequences of sin continue to unfold around us, unravelling centuries of Christianized culture, leaving in its wake an increasingly individualistic, materialistic, and amoral society.
For this issue of FOCUS, we reached out to experts to help us assess the state of morality in the current culture. Dr. Jeffrey Greenman addresses the public relevance of Judeo-Christian morality, particularly as it is understood and codified in the 10 Commandments. Dr. David Deane discusses how Christianity’s hold on the culture was lost, leading us back into pre-Christian styles of thinking. This puts us as Christians in a position that would be very familiar to our early Christian brothers and sisters. The current culture does not operate from the same set of beliefs and values, and as such is coming up with very different answers to fundamental questions regarding life, the nature of the good, and our purpose as humans. Blaise Alleyne, through an apologetic against euthanasia and assisted suicide, shows us one way to engage a culture that no longer holds a place for Christianity as the basis for our moral discernment.
At one of our online workshops this March, we addressed the state of Hippocratic Medicine. Dr. Alana Cormier guided us through a thoughtful reflection — what if Hippocratic Medicine were our patient? We took a history and considered the symptoms and data. As a group, we discussed a differential diagnosis and possible treatment plans. The discussion among attendees — who varied from medical students to retired members — was moving and insightful. Our retired members harkened back to days when Hippocratic Medicine was in good health, when a shared morality guided expected behaviour. They shared about long years of dedicated service and the importance of patient care that recognized the dignity of those suffering. Our practicing members shared about the challenges of operating in a system that had rejected our once-shared morality, while remarking on the need to guide younger doctors and students entering medicine, a need echoed by the students and resident in attendance. They shared about the difficulties students are experiencing in medical school, but also the opportunity for witness.
Michael Walz, a medical student from Newfoundland, shared a reflection during the workshop on patience, which he wrote out for this issue of FOCUS. He reminded us of the saying, “When we pray to God for patience, He does not make us patient people. Rather, He provides us opportunities to practice patience” and applied it to his current life as a father, husband, and medical student. I couldn’t help but apply his thoughts to our current situation. As people who want Hippocratic Medicine and Christian morality to thrive, we are in the unique position of practicing it, not out of social obligation or habit, but out of a deep sense of conviction. If we want to be physicians and dentists after God’s heart, we are given daily opportunities to hone that skill.
In this culture, it’s easy to get caught up in a feeling of helplessness, but there’s something empowering in that thought. We do face a great challenge every day in our desire to integrate our faith in practice. That challenge is found not only in our conscientious objection to certain procedures and practices, but also in the daily care for patients. When our dental members are providing complex care to a patient overwhelmed by pain; when our physician members are sharing life-altering diagnoses; when our medical and dental students encounter challenging curricula — in every circumstance we are called to be in Christ, for Christ, and emissaries of Christ to those we meet.
Our community pieces in this issue of FOCUS show us God’s love in action through the work of various mission organizations our members participate in. From Provision Charitable Foundation’s oral health program in Tanzania, to Missionary Health Institute’s global missions, to Samaritan’s Purse’s Disaster Assistance Response Team — CMDA Canada members and our colleagues are seeking to be Christ’s hands and feet wherever He leads. There are opportunities to practice Christianity around every corner.
The true challenge is to embrace those opportunities with a heart that embraces and shares God’s love. We can do the right things for the wrong reasons or do the right thing without love. I can give to those in need for the charitable tax receipt and not out of love. I can do great things in God’s name while revelling in the attention and applause. I can read the Scripture every day out of habit, but not let the Word live in my heart. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
As we go forward, praying for God to make the world more like His Kingdom, there are concrete things we can do to build up His Kingdom on Earth. We can embrace the opportunities to practice as Christians, we can help guide and inspire those coming behind us, and we can pray for those around us. When we are tempted to join in the refrain of “What is the world coming to?”, we can delight in God’s love at work in the world, and rest in the joyful hope that what the world is truly coming to is Jesus. When I was visiting the Coliseum in Rome in the early 2000s, I remember being surprised to see a cross etched into the stone. This edifice, which had been the site of horrors and martyrdom, was transformed by this simple symbol. No culture, even the mighty Roman Empire, could stand against the power of Christ. Through every trial and storm, Christ will prevail. Our work in this season is to be faithful and to stay in His love. As Dr. Kate Brouwer reminds us in her thoughtful reflection on a stormy season in her life, God is with us now, just as He has always been, and always will be.