Day 218: Covid Will Not Win - GOMEZ

DAY 218

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Thirty-two    Sunday 18 October 2020

Covid Will Not Win:

Meet the People Powering a Hospital in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, New York

Alexis Gomez, Patient Transporter

“The first day that I went into that truck, I went home and cried for about two hours. I say I’m the cab driver inside the hospital. I move people by bed, stretcher or wheelchair. I knock on their door, introduce myself, and try to crack a joke or something so they could smile, because they’re probably not having the best day if they’re in the hospital. With Covid, I became a mortician at the same time as a transporter. The amount of bodies that we had to move – it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. My job would be clock in, probably do one or two calls, and then get suited up to move about 15 bodies into a freezer truck, every single day. Dead weight is probably the hardest thing you could ever feel. The scary part is the next day I was desensitized. I put my suit on. I sat down. I took a deep breath and just said, ‘Let’s go.’ This was my time to be called to do this. Do you understand?” *From a special three-page article by the same title in a national newspaper.

What can we learn from Alexis Gomez?  First, there is his willingness to do what he is being asked to do, even if it involves something he hasn’t signed up for. Moving living patients around is one thing and having just been in the hospital I quickly learned the value of patient transporters. That he is also willing to transport the deceased says a lot about him and his sense of work ethic from which he himself benefits, as he can look at himself in the mirror and respect the man he sees. 

Second, he cried for two hours after his first day transporting the dead, “whose weight is probably the heaviest thing you could ever feel.” I can’t imagine. His tears were not a sign of weakness but strong signals that he is deeply human and deeply moved by the tragedy of it all. Jesus wept, too, in the presence of a dead body at the tomb of Lazarus in John 11:35: “Jesus wept.”

Third, this is his “time to be called to do this.” God’s calling in our lives more often than not is not in the glamorous and the obvious somewhere else, doing something else but in the routine, the mundane, and the familiar right where we already are. This is Alexis’ discovery and gift.

Reflective questions: Alexis – from the Greek for helper. Will you seek to emulate Alexis this week as a helper for someone in need? Which of these three lessons we can learn from Alexis speaks most to you? Why? Will you pray today for Alexis for strength and peace?

Reflective Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:10 – “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it …”