28. BITESIZE CATECHISM: ST. CAMILLUS DE LELLIS - GRACE, FREEDOM & ADDICTION

APPETIZER:  "Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude." (CCC #1731)  "God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created the human person in his image by conferring on us, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The human person can only enter into the communion of love with Gd by a free choice. God gives us help (grace) to do this by touching and directly moving our hearts. He has placed within us a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy." (CCC 2002).  We do not always respond properly to this initiative of God. We sin. but "to form an equitable judgment about the our moral responsibility" when we do what is objectively sinful,  "we must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability." (CCC #2352)

MAIN COURSE: This week's Appetizer give us a very brief and very quick overview of Morality, which means the power we have to freely use our will to choose good and avoid evil. Quite often the word "morality" is associated only with sex but this is due to a limited and scrupulous outlook. Morality has to do with every human action that flows from every human choice in every area of life. It is the most fundamental teaching of the Gospel: to CHOOSE to love God and one's neighbor as oneself. Those who go to Confession regularly become very aware that there is a mysterious interplay between  God's grace, our human freedom and our power to choose between good and evil.  So often, as St. Paul says in his Letter to the Romans, we find ourselves in a struggle between knowing what is good and choosing to do it: "I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway." (Romans 7:19).  In our times there is an uptick in the extreme expression of this struggle by so many taking upon themselves the chains of addiction, which adds even more mystery into the dynamics of morality.  

The Saint of the Week we are learning about today is an amazing example of how God's grace can cut through bad moral choices and even extreme addiction.  St. Camillus de Lellis is marvelous inspiring proof that not even the most unfortunate of environments and life-situations have the last word in our lives once we truly encounter Christ.  Humanly speaking, Camillus was not a likely candidate for sainthood. His mother died when he was a child, his father neglected him, and he grew up with an excessive addiction to gambling, a violent temper and an obstinate self-will.  Even his mother feared him, and for peace's sake allowed him his own way so far as she was able.  

After her death Camillus was placed under the care of relatives, who took little interest in him and he was allowed to do very much as he chose. He was sent to school, but he detested it. When he ought to have been learning he did little but dream of his absent father's military adventures, and longed for the day when he would be grown-up enough to run away and join him.  By his teenage years, he was a 6'4" muscular bulky young man who easily became a threat and a bully to all who opposed him. Early in life he became completely addicted to gambling, literally losing the clothes he was wearing many times over!  When he was barely 17 he joined his father in a foreign camp, and enlisted as a soldier. There he learned everything a hedonistic soldier could learn, and gave free reign to his desires and addiction.

But as I mentioned earlier, God's grace has a mysterious way of working itself into every life. All it needs is the smallest, tiniest crack!   In spite of his waywardness, Camillus learned from his mother a deep respect for religion and believed in prayer, though he seldom prayed. He believed in the sacraments, though he seldom received them. But this openess to God, no matter how insignificant it seemed, would somehow pull him through many a crisis, and in the end was his saving grace.  After several years of war, Camillus was wounded and afflicted with a disease of his leg that remained with him for life. He went to Rome where he entered the San Giacomo Hospital for Incurables as both patient and servant, but was dismissed for quarrelsomeness after nine months. 

Then in the winter of 1574, when he was 24, Camillus gambled away everything he had—savings, weapons, literally down to his shirt. He accepted work at a Franciscan monastery and was one day so moved by a sermon that he began a conversion that changed the thrust of his life. Broken by his suffering and enlightened about the extent to which he had failed in the proper use of his freedom, grace touched his heart.  Camillus returned to San Giacomo Hospital where his newfound faith and  his dedication was rewarded by his being made superintendent. He had found the mission for which God had created him and he devoted the rest of his life to the care of the sick. 

Even more amazing, Camillus studied for the priesthood and was ordained at the age of 34! He left San Giacomo Hospital and founded a new religious congregation in the Church: The Servants of the Sick (nicknamed after his death as "the Camillians").  They bound themselves by a special vow to serve the sick even at the risk of their own lives. Even today, in the midst of the coronavirus, they boldly continue to live out this pledge to God.  Charity was his first concern, but the physical aspects of the hospital also received his diligent attention. 

Camillus revolutionized healthcare in his day by insisting on cleanliness and the technical competence of those who served the sick.  When a horrible famine broke out followed by such a widespread plague that 60,000 people died just in Rome alone, Camillus and his companions wasted no time in reaching out to the poor, clothing them, feeding them, offering shelter and administering the Sacrament of the Sick to the dying.   The Camillians were very innovative and formed the first military ambulance on battlefields.  They are also responsible for the red cross becoming a universal sign of medical aid because they wore a large red cross on the front of their black cassocks which became a recognized sign of medical charity. It was later adopted by the American Red Cross after the Civil War.

Camillus himself suffered the disease of his leg throughout his life and even in his last illness, he left his own bed to see if other patients in the hospital needed help. The once tough and rugged bully soldier is said to have become the most tender and compassionate of healthcare workers often saying that we should love and care for the sick as a mother does for her own children.   He died in Rome on July 14, 1614 at 64 years of age. He was declared a saint a little more than 100 years later and is the patron of the sick, addicts, healthcare workers and hospitals. St. Camillus de Lellis is a veritable sign and proof that grace can overcome addiction and can empower us to use our freedom to choose love for God and neighbor over love for ourselves alone.

DOGGIE-BAG: A little something to take away for spiritual snacking...

From Our Catholic Tradition: The Red Cross of St. Camillus. During a battle in 1601, while the Servants of the Sick were busy tending the wounded, their tent caught fire and everything in it was lost and burned EXCEPT for the red cross on a black cassock of one of the Camillians. It was completely untouched though all else around it was in ashes. Ever since then it became a custom to have small red crosses (usually made out of cloth) blessed and brought to the sick while invoking the intercession of St. Camillus de Lellis.  Many cures and healing have come about through this act of faith. A priest I knew was healed through this sacramental of the blessed Red Cross of St. Camillus. An invocation to use with the Red Cross: "By the power of the Cross and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the prayers of St. Camillus de Lellis, may God comfort you (name) in this suffering and fill you with his healing grace in mind, body and spirit. Amen."

Prayer to St. Camillus: Glorious St. Camillus, turn your eyes upon those who suffer and those who minister to them. Grant to the sick trust in the goodness of God and in his healing grace. Help those who care for the sick to always respect the human dignity of those they serve by being kind and merciful, patient and generous, tender and compassionate. May your presence and prayers bring comfort in illness, strength in suffering and hope in the promises of the Divine Physician, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Twelve Steps of Recovery from Addiction: The 12 Steps originated with Alcoholics Anonymous but few people know that they were refined by the founder of AA with the help of 2 Jesuit priests. These steps reflect the spiritual principles of St.  Ignatius Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) and are a simple modern day application of Gospel teachings on spiritual conversion and growth in love. Before casting stones at someone who is addicted to a substance or behavior, we need to realize that ALL people are addicted to sin in one way or another.  We also need to acknowledge, as St. Camillus' life shows us, that grace can and will overcome any addiction if we have the will to seek help and do what we can to regain our human freedom.  Choosing to embrace the 12 steps is the first way to find this help.

1. We admitted we were powerless over (whatever our addiction may be)—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Scripture Verse to Memorize: "Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin." (Romans 6:6)

Servants of the Sick (Camillians) Today