Genuine Joy
I thought that I was making a simple visit to the Head and Neck Department of Mount Sinai West in New York City. When I arrived, I was flabbergasted to find the staff lined up to meet me. Someone noticed from my records that I had recently celebrated my 100th birthday and they planned a celebration of my attaining the Century mark. So for a few delightful minutes, they set aside all presumed professional needs and simply were warm and loving without concern for white-coat boundaries.
Doctors and nurses, therapists and technicians, secretaries and janitors, all smiling at me with three big balloons gamboling, almost dancing above their heads 1-0-0. My own Doctor made a little speech, presenting me with a gorgeous Cake from a French Boulangerie and a delightful card which they all signed with messages of good spirit and warmth. These wonderful people are professionals who help others to enjoy the exquisite dynamic we call “Sound.”
To say that I was flying on the proverbial Cloud 9, would be a lame attempt to touch my euphoria. In all my long and varied life, I have rarely come close to such genuine joy which I still feel. I have tried to process within my somewhat puzzled soul, my immediate happiness.
Is it that reaching 100 is a rarity in the present human capacity? Is it that we like to see old priests who remember more than their names and who can still, perform the Sacred mysteries of God? Is it that we like to do “nice” things for those soon to depart this life? Who didn’t utter some kind of “ole” when George Burns, twirling his ubiquitous cigar, expressed a wish to play the London’s Palladium Theatre when he reached the Big One Hundred? Is it my own God-given interest and belief in His wonderful love of His children? Is this some kind of “pay-off” for embracing the Jesus command…” I will view it as being done to Me?”
Perhaps, it is an aspect of the lively Christian life. Perhaps this is another view of what Fr John Collins calls the “Ministry to the Ignored” wherein we are asked by the Master to treat everyone as a special gift in God’s image and likeness, regardless of the attractive/unattractive quotient. Maybe today’s delight for me was a reward for my often failing but always trying to view everyone I meet as a living temple of the Holy Spirit.
I have long recognized that it is not necessary to hit a home run to please God. What IS necessary is to try. To try to see Jesus in all, in the beautiful, the ugly, the pleasant, the impolite, in the grateful and the boor.
I don’t know. But I do know how joyful it is to be the recipient of real warmth and good wishes and acknowledgment. I am so grateful and it feels good.
