Jesus is talking to common people about rulers, who “insult and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you.” But Jesus tells the people, “You are the salt of the earth.”
Jesus describes people made to feel inessential as being essential – for life – “salt of the earth.” During Covid, inessential rulers, specifically the military, claimed the right to judge who was essential. But the deadly military is guilty of diverting from society essential people and essential resources necessary for life. The diversion is especially apparent in health care and with nurses, routinely treated as inessential. The juxtaposing of these two professions, soldiers and nurses, was highlighted during Covid. Nurses started to be associated with sacrifice. Sacrifice means the blood offering of a life,” which is the killing soldiers do. Nurses also started to be associated with heroes. Hero means “illustrious man, a demi-god warrior” who takes life, which is, again, the killing soldiers do. Nurses were being made into soldiers, the first to set foot on the battlefield, and the last to step off in battle with an enemy. But like on a battlefield, the circumstance in hospitals was manufactured by inessential soldiers; criminally deadly ranked supervisors. Political officers ignored the novel coronaviruses handbook, disbanded its authoring team, looted its funds, minimized its impact, and hindered basic life-saving practices. In response, nurses refused to act as soldiers, obedient to death. They refused to offer blood sacrifice, their own, or their patients. Unlike soldiers, they acted as salt, essential life givers. They stood up to ranked officers willing to ‘insult and persecute them.’ In their defiance of death and affirmation of life, nurses are no longer being associated with soldiers – rightly so. Soldiers are diminished of conscience, trained into subordinate silence so they’ll kill on the command of ranked officers. Nurses will not be diminished of conscience, nor trained into subordinate silence allowing people to die on account of ranked officers. Nurses are disobeying political and hospital officers who are taking individual millions from profits while nurses receive scant salary increases. Nurses are disobeying ranked officers who taking government funds to use for executive bonuses, but not for masks and PPE. Nurses are disobeying ranked officers who give their time and attention to diversifying executive stock portfolios, lobbying for Medicare kickbacks, and cutting staff and staffing practices, but not for hiring nurses nor for nurse retention, nor skill development, training, or education for nurses to maintain essential professional expertise. Rather than accurately reporting these truths, the military’s compliant media is adding to the insults and persecution of nurses and the common good. The media is slandering recently striking nurses as greedy, uncaring, and forcing socialist unionizing because nurses won’t allow ranked officers to treat health care as inessential. This empire prefers people be silent obedient soldiers rather than boisterous conscientious healers. Nurses are enduring incredible moral distress, every day, at the bedside of human beings for whom they are committed to give care but are being denied the essential respect, time, and resources to do so. We’re having witnessed to us the difference between inessential soldiers camouflaged as heroes by and for the inessential ruling class, and nurses who are essential healers for all of us.
“what if we went slowly thoughtfully about the business of healing what if I bowed to you and you to me before we touched aching bodies what if we said out loud this is sacred work… what if I blessed your hands and you mine before we began… listening to broken bodies hungry souls would we then return to the place where so long ago we felt called where we knew for sure that we did indeed have hearts… hearts that were courageous enough to break again and again and again hearts that were not afraid to weep at the sheer beauty of (it all)… what if we were unafraid to weep at the joy of newborns crowning or the resurrection of hearts expired… or said a blessing and quietly contemplated the Mystery.” (Redesigning the Practice of Medicine – Pam Mitchell RN MFA)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, we vow to be essential healers.
Question: How do I show support for essential healers?
February 5, 2023 Gospel Matthew 5:13-16 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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