Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25:34-36

One hot summer day, a young couple and their four-year-old daughter, Tzippie, were on their way to the mountains for a few weeks’ vacation. Suddenly, a huge truck in the oncoming lane collided head-on with the family’s small car. The couple was injured seriously, and little Tzippie sustained many fractures. They were immediately taken to the nearest hospital.

Martha, the nurse who was assigned to Tzippie, was a single; older woman. She understood Tzippie’s fear and insecurity and became very devoted to her. When Martha finished her shift, instead of going home, she would volunteer to stay with Tzippie at night. When Tzippie was able to be moved, Martha put her in a wheelchair and took her to visit her parents every day. After many months of hospitalization, the family was discharged. Before they left the hospital, the parents blessed Martha for her devoted and loving care and invited her to visit them. Tzippie would not let go of Martha and insisted that she come to live with them. Martha did not want to be parted from her little Tzippie, but her life was in the children’s ward of the hospital, and she could not think of leaving.

Over thirty years passed. One winter Martha, who was now in her seventies, became seriously ill with pneumonia and was hospitalized in the geriatric ward of a hospital near her home. There was a certain nurse on duty who noticed that Martha had very few visitors. She tried her best to give the elderly lady special care, and she saw that she was a sensitive, clever person. One night when the nurse was sitting near her elderly patient, she confided in her as to what had prompted her to become a nurse. When she was four years old, she explained, and her parents had been injured in an automobile accident, there had been a wonderful nurse who brought her back to health with her loving, caring devotion. As she grew older, she determined that one day she, too, would become a nurse and help others.

When the nurse had finished her story, Martha said softly, “Tzippie, we are together again, but this time you are nursing me!” Tzippie’s eyes opened wide as she stared at Martha, suddenly recognizing her. “Is it really you?” she cried out. “How many times I have thought about you and prayed that someday we would meet again!”

When Martha recovered from her illness, Tzippie just packed up Martha’s belongings and took her home with her. She lives with Tzippie to this day, and Tzippie’s husband and children have welcomed her like a most special grandmother.

Ruchoma Shain

Comment:
Visiting and caring for the sick is one of the corporal works of mercy (Matthew 25:35-36), and by this standard we will be judged on the last day. Show compassion towards the ill and the infirm, and God’s blessing will be upon you as Martha and Tzippie experienced in this beautiful story.

Fr. Hugh Duffy