Sermon by Prof. Rev. Ivan Bodrožić, ecclesiastical assistant of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society, at the annual Assembly of the Society in Rijeka, March 8, 2025
The regular annual assembly of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society was held on Saturday, March 8, 2025, at the John Paul II Theological Seminary in Rijeka.
The assembly was concluded by Prof. Rev. Ivan Bodrožić, ecclesiastical assistant of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society, with a suitable sermon presented in its entirety.
Our Society and Lenten temptations
Since we have begun the holy season of Lent, it behooves us to align the message for this Assembly with the message from the Gospel of the first Sunday of Lent. And the Gospel tells us of the temptations of Jesus to which he was subjected in the desert after a 40-day fast. These are the three basic temptations with which Satan dared to tempt the Son of God, and in which Jesus defeated Satan. The devil challenges man and the whole society with the same temptations even today, because the devil’s goal is to direct society and mankind in the wrong direction. The same applies to our Croatian society in which people strive for everything: splendor, glamour, security, earnings, money, power, influence, etc. And tall of this than leads man in the wrong direction.
We are not exempt from this temptation and danger either. Because there are human difficulties in our society that should be eliminated, we are also tempted (because we ourselves are part of society) to start dreaming of a future of power, splendor, and brilliance, for our people and our Croatian society, and perhaps for the Croatian Catholic Medical Society, too.
Our Lord Jesus is the medicine for us and our ideas, our plans and projects, precisely because He is not carried away by great human ideas and achievements but rather confronts us with His departure into the desert to ground us to earth. More precisely, His goal is to allow the Spirit of God to lead us, as He led Him through the desert. Allowing the Holy Spirit to govern our plans and actions is the goal of our fellowship, both here at the Assembly and in the activities of our Society. Only through the Holy Spirit can we achieve fellowship in the Croatian Catholic Medical Society; therefore, attending the Assembly is like going into the desert where we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us and introduce us to the true reality of life. And just as Jesus’ life could not be bypassed without temptations and the Tempter, so our life cannot be spared from it either. The Tempter wants to disturb our fellowship with Lord, our opportunity of being with Him in solitude and intimacy – in one word – in the desert. Satan wants to distract us with the hustle, bustle and rush throughout the world. He brings us into situations where we cannot understand what is really happening and what life is about. The Lord Jesus goes into the desert where He can best expose the Tempter.
There are three temptations, of which the temptation of bread being the first. Satan asks Jesus to turn a stone into bread so that He can feed Himself. Since Jesus is hungry, Satan offers him a very humane offer. And since He also owns the power, it is simply to turn stones into bread. It is strange that Jesus did not think of this Himself. However, this temptation should be transferred to our medical context. In other words, we live in a society in which health and a healthy life are our temptations. Today’s people say that health is the most important value, just as Satan told Jesus that the most important value is feeding. If we ourselves succumb to this influence, we will be in danger of being instrumentalized by others. This happens when we claim in a very exclusive and absolute way that health is important and that we must be at the service of health. Of course, health is important, just like bread. But Jesus showed us that there are more important things than bread, even more important than health. We need to nurture the awareness that we are servants of God and that we serve God first and foremost, and not only to human desires and demands that are often directed to satisfying these desires. The Lord encourages us to serve people, but not in the manner of human service, but with the awareness of service to God. As His servants, we also need to adopt the standard of that service, not allowing that service to become a market product. This is the temptation according to which people believe that everything can become a market value, including our service. And then these same people expect us to serve them unreservedly just because they paid us, and to do so in the way they expect. In that case, they could expect to be able to buy from us all the services that they consider ‘healthy’. In that case, we would be tempted not to understand that man does not live by bread alone, that is by health, but that there are greater values. If a person really lived ‘only by health’, then he would be tempted to declare what is healthy and worth living, and what should be discarded, whether it is a conceived weak/sick baby or a ‘useless’ old person. We are invited to serve those who are not healthy, in the way the Lord expects us to serve. We are invited to serve those little ones and all those who are not healthy. This is what Jesus does, who even in the desert serves us little ones, and for that reason exposes Satan. His goal is to protect weak people and strengthen us against the Tempter. Thus, it becomes an incentive and inspiration for us not to live only for the ‘healthy’ and for health but for the Lord to be the measure of our service. And when we know that He is the measure of our service, then we will not allow anyone to abuse and exploit us.
Today, medicine is in danger of being subjected to man’s interests, of being harnessed to his system – the system of money and power, authority and profit. There is a danger that medicine will become a weapon in the hands of the powerful, and instead of serving the sick, it will be at the service of those healthy and powerful who use illness and the sick for their own enrichment and profit. The Lord wants us to serve him by living for man who has the immense dignity that God has given him. He also wants us who serve the Lord to choose to live righteously. That is the true healthy life. In this spirit, living healthily means living for the sick, for the little ones, and for the vulnerable.
The first temptation is also linked to the second one, which is the temptation of authority and power. Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth, including their authority and power. But Satan also sets a condition: he demands that Jesus worship him. This can be another temptation in medicine as well: it can be a source of earthly goods. There are those who will give us everything, just to worship and serve them, instead of doing what God expects of us. Thus we see that the temptations logically build on each other. After bread/health comes wealth. In addition, Satan falsely presents himself as the master of all these goods when he says to Jesus: “I will give you all this authority and their glory, for it has been given to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. If you therefore worship me, everything is yours.” But he cunningly offers something that he does not possess. Because everything that exists is in God’s possession, and if we know how to serve God, Satan is truly not the owner of anything, but rather a great liar and manipulator. However, doctors can also receive such tempting offers: we will give you everything you want, just serve us and our wealth; serve our ideas and ideologies, profits and power. Serve faithfully and we will reward you abundantly. Serve us and everything will be yours. Serve us even when it is necessary to kill the innocent, to take the lives of the helpless, and we will reward you abundantly for that.
Just as Jesus showed that Satan is a liar and that he offers something that is not in his possession, also healthcare workers should know that such tempting offers take away more than they give. And when we place our possession at the disposal of the Lord and our fellow brothers, it also becomes a means of our sanctification. Then we have shown in the right way that medicine is not the devil’s tool, but rather God’s gift to people. Therefore, everything depends on us and our approach. While we submit everything to God by sincerely worshiping Him, at the same time we take it out of the hands of the devil, thus diminishing Satan’s power over human life. Thus, through our service, everything is handed over to God.
In addition to all that has been said, the temptation of fame is obviously followed by as a third temptation. Physicians are a category of people with certain amount of fame and popularity, who are recognized and well-known, and therefore can use medicine to increase their fame and praise among people. They are at risk of allowing themselves to be carried in the arms by both people and angels, in accordance with the third temptation to which the Lord himself was exposed as Satan told him to throw himself down and nothing would happen to him because the angels would carry him in their arms. But Jesus clearly answers: “Do not tempt the Lord your God!” Honor, glory and power belong to God alone, and that is why we should serve Him alone. This is a clear message to all members of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society – to be servants of God’s glory and not of their own. Jesus came among us, even allowed Himself to be tempted, and showed us that He Himself honors us immensely when we serve people the way God expects us to. And when he does not allow Satan to buy him with honor, authority, power and wealth, he only shows us that he knows how immensely valuable a person is, how precious the human heart is. Jesus does not allow human life to be traded, which is a clear message to all of us: we cannot trade people! There are limits below which we must not go! There is no trade in human welfare!
This should be an encouragement to us, despite the weaknesses and difficulties we have, to fight and overcome these temptations with the divine spirit and divine strength that comes from the Holy Spirit. Bearing in mind this clear awareness and inspiration to be at the service of man, to fight for man in a unique way, we will not give up our mission. For if we do not fight for man, who else in our society will fight for him?
In this way, dear members of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society, thank you all for fighting by dedicating your time and abilities, for making your gifts available to God and your fellow human beings. Continue to strive to be at your disposal to your Croatian Catholic Medical Society, because it is not a society where you get rich, become famous and easily earn money, but rather a society where you strive to find those in need and give them bread and everything they need. Moreover, in this Society you give others your health, your abilities and possibilities, your gifts and strengths, so do not give up on this holy path. May the Lord protect, preserve, defend, inspire and accompany you, in order to serve Him faithfully and be the pride of our entire nation and all those who seek your services. As we thank you, I invoke God’s blessing upon you and your families, so that you may courageously act in His holy name for the benefit of your brothers, spreading the fragrance of His kingdom throughout the earth.
Prof. Rev. Ivan Bodrožić
Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society
