Solidarity Bridge’s Mass Reflection at All Saints Parish
Solidarity Bridge gave the Mass Reflection at All Saints Parish Masses during the weekend of August 22nd and 23rd, as part of the Archdiocese's Mission Cooperation program. The following is an excerpt from that reflection:
Like All Saints Parish, Solidarity Bridge, and our Bolivian partner organization, Puente de Solidaridad, bring people together. Our mission is medical, and we work with those who are seriously injured, like St. Isaac Jogues. We sit alongside family members who do all that they can to keep their loved ones alive, like St. Martha of Bethany. As laypersons acting ecumenically in the world, we try to faithfully live the words of Christ. We are part of a church that welcomes, nourishes, and heals.
Specifically, our organization provides desperately needed surgical care, training, and supplies to the people of Bolivia and Paraguay. We resonate with the search that Psalm 63 refers to: “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord our God.” Our organization was founded out of that same thirst to serve others and encounter God through service. We realized that many medical professionals share that same call to help others. As our Second Reading in Romans 12 tells us, we all have different gifts according to the grace given to us: if it is a gift of ministry, we should engage in serving others; if it is teaching, we should teach; and if it is healing, we should heal.
We reached out to individual doctors, nurses, parishes, and hospitals here in Illinois and across the United States to find medical experts willing to share their skills across borders and sought out persons willing and able to provide the financial resources needed to sustain the mission. For as we know, we each have different skills, but when we come together and work toward a shared mission, a shared healing purpose, we can glorify God through our service.
And so, the effort was successful. Mission trips were scheduled for spine surgeries, heart surgeries, surgeries to remove brain tumors, gynecological surgeries for women, general surgeries, and surgeries to remove cancers. It takes very specialized skills to be successful in those surgeries.
Many of us who have traveled to South America on mission have found meaning in the Letter to Ephesians that is part of the liturgy today. We have prayed “to enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call.”
Since 1999, Solidarity Bridge has known the hope that belongs to our call; we have taken more than 130 trips to South America and restored health to more than 30,000 patients. Recognizing that our Bolivian and Paraguayan medical partners often have the knowledge and skills but not the equipment they need for treatments, Solidarity Bridge has provided more than $48 million of donated medical supplies.
I would like to share a particular case of a young student and musician in Bolivia who suffered terrible headaches and suddenly began to lose consciousness. Marco wasn’t even 20 years old when he was diagnosed with a rare brain malformation that would eventually – and very soon --- take his life. Because the needed surgery was not locally available, our staff in Bolivia put this young man on a waiting list for one of our upcoming surgical missions. Two skilled neurosurgeons, one from the US and one from South America, took on this case. The hope in their calling as neurosurgeons – and the hope sustained by Marco and his family – prevailed. Marco not only survived: he is back to his music, his studies, and his own dreams for the future.
I bring you this good news today to ask if you would be willing to be part of our Solidarity Bridge community by sharing a bit of your time, talent, or treasure with us. Share your time by learning more about us online or through our social media. Share your talent with us by volunteering your medical skills on a trip. Share your treasures with us through a donation in the second collection today that will help save a patient’s life. And share your prayers with us for our continued work.
What is essential is that we make sure that we give ourselves the chance to “discern what the will of God is, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” On behalf of Solidarity Bridge, I would like to share our prayers for those of you in families where there is a current health issue. May you and your loved ones be surrounded by our healing Christ.
As the Solidarity Bridge community prays for our patients and their families, we also pray for you, and we thank you for welcoming us to All Saints today.
A heartfelt thank you to our Mass reflection speakers: Cynthia Judge, Catherine Werner, and Katie Dorner.
