God’s Love: What’s the dose?

We sometimes forget that God loves us far more than we love ourselves. I’ve had a difficult week with pneumonia, again. By Saturday morning, I knew that I was headed for trouble. I awoke my poor doctor at 5:00 AM with shallow breathing and glucose levels through the roof. I really felt badly. The man works hard, has young children and who knows how much he gets to sleep during the week.

Needless to say that his service paged him and he responded immediately. As soon as I told him the problem, I could almost hear him wake up at the other end. He asked me to hang up for a few minutes and promised to call back. In less than five minutes, the phones rings and I hear a very polite voice, “Brother Jay?” It was my doctor. He had gone to his computer, searched a database, read the notes from another of my doctors and figured out the problem. Now he had to find a solution. He explained the problem and told me to hang up again. Within minutes he was back on the line. He had spoken to the local 24 hour pharmacy and had asked the pharmacist to prepare a special batch of insulin for me and requested that it be quick. Shortly after he hung up, the pharmacy called. The insulin was ready. I just had to send someone to pick it up. In the meantime, the doctor called me three more times on Saturday to check up on me and have me read him my glucose levels. How many doctors spend that much time on one patient on their day off?

But the story does not end there. That was only the beginning. I sent out a text to the brothers asking for their prayers. Within minutes, the brothers were calling me from different cities in the area. They were concerned. Some headed for the nearest Blessed Sacrament chapel. Brother Bernard came and spent the day with me. He arrived at 11:30 AM and remained until 11PM. I truly appreciated it, because his company kept my mind occupied. Normally, I would have been waiting to see the glucose levels drop, maybe worrying about my diet and spend the day feeling miserable. In the meantime, the other brothers continued to call during the day, all day Saturday.

When Sunday morning rolled around, I felt better enough to attend Holy Mass. I checked my morning glucose and to my surprise, it was normal, so I didn’t take the insulin. I went to mass. As I was leaving, Brother Masseo called to tell me that he was driving in from another city about 25 miles away to spend the day with me. The folks in my house had to take care of their jobs. There was some concern about whether I should stay alone or not. Brother Masseo was not part of this conversation. He didn’t even know that it was taking place. His call and offer to come spend the day was like a prayer come true. We met up at my home again, after mass.

Brother brought me lunch, which was delicious. Normally, I test my glucose before meals, but I felt fine and did not do it. Two hours after lunch, I checked and to my pleasant surprise, it was normal. I checked three times. Each time, it was normal. I spent an entire day insulin free, the first in a long time.

When Julian arrived, Masseo left. He was going to drive 25 miles to go home and finish another assignment. But there were also phone calls and texts from brothers as far away as 60 miles. Finally, it was Sunday evening and once again the telephone rang. It was my doctor again. He wanted to check in on me and make sure that everything was OK. I explained to him that I was fine and told him about my insulin free day. Ha sked me if I had done anything different, which I had not. He then said my normal was not normal for diabetics. I explained that God loves us through the people he places in our lives, beginning with him and moving along to my Franciscan Brothers of Life. The only explanation that I could give him is that