New Hip
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
26 Aug 2007
Every year in Australia about 30,000 hips are replaced. Now I too have a brand new metal shaft cemented into my thigh with a round titanium shield in the hip joint and a mobile ceramic orb inside it.
No longer is there anything special about the operation, although it relieves a lot of suffering.
In other words it is another medical wonder which we take for granted, although the necessity of such a procedure is a reminder of the faults which emerge in our bodies as we approach old age. The first hip replacement only took place in Australia in the 1970s.
I was in hospital for 6 days and took a few hesitant steps with the help of a walking frame on the second day. Things are changed because as patients we are completely dependent on the competence and kindness of the nurses and the occasional visits of the doctors.
Pain control is much better than it used to be due to wonderful drugs and I had only one day of trouble.
Christians have their own approach to pain and suffering as we believe that we are redeemed or saved by Jesus’ life, suffering and death. This is an unusual notion, not common sense at all, to believe that our sins can be forgiven, that we gain access to eternal life and that the scales of justice will balance out in eternity because of the suffering, death and final resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
When I was a youngster we were all told to “offer up” our sufferings, small or greater, to God by associating them with Jesus’ suffering and to ask God to use them for some good purpose.
A very sick parent might offer up his suffering that his children will continue to have faith. One wonderful grand-mother, bed-ridden for years, offered up her long trial so that God would keep her grand-children good and healthy, away from drugs.
The anesthetist seemed to understand this world and suggested that I offer my small difficulties for the “holy souls” i.e. those still being purified in purgatory to become fit for God’s presence. One major point of the Catholic practice of praying for the dead is to help speed them into the perfect happiness of God’s presence. Nobody in purgatory can slip backwards into hell.
Prayer is difficult when sick, although it can be managed if we are not too ill, and saying the rosary sometimes does manage to put you to sleep.
After hospital I had 9 days in a Jewish rehabilitation centre, working with a group of patients under the leadership of expert physiotherapists.
We too were like the souls in purgatory as we knew we were on the mend, destined for health and feeling the daily improvement as we crossed one small pain barrier after another.
We owe much to our doctors and nurses and physiotherapists.
