October 25, 2022

CHILD  PSYCHIATRIST

 

It took him two years to become a child psychiatrist.

 

Oh - after college he went to 10 more years of school and studies and research – first to become a medical doctor – then to become a psychiatrist – then to focus on child psychiatry – but he couldn’t get a grasp on just what to do – when it came to kids who had down deep deadingly patterns.

 

Silence and staring – with little seeing – seemed to be their scenarios.

 

A sentence in a lecture by a world famous psychiatrist triggered his choice of being and choosing to be and to work with kids – as a psychiatrist.

 

The sentence: “The bigger the problem, the earlier the problem.”

 

He felt so helpless trying to help some little kids who couldn’t or wouldn’t cry – kids who could hardly speak – kids would couldn’t play games.

 

He brought into his hospital ward grandmothers – teenage girls and boys – other kids – to be and to play with these kids -  but some kids had deep, deep what seemed like undiggable problems – especially a few kids who had no interaction with anyone really for their first 3 years of life.

 

Then one day this child psychiatrist was in church and the gospel was read.

 

Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like?”

 

Then Jesus in his unknowability said, “To what can I compare it – this dream of God the Father for all?”

 

Then for some reason Jesus took a tiny mustard seed – planted it in his garden – watered it – and then watched it grow – watched it become a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.

 

Did he do this – learn this from Joseph – or someone in the neighborhood?

 

Then one day he watched a woman take some wheat flour – some yeast  - some water and watched a whole batch of dough become leavened – become bread. Then she baked it. Delicious taste. Delicious scent. Delicious mind and heart changer. Give us this day our daily bread.

 

Was it Mary – his mother - whom he watched doing this?  

 

The child psychiatrist said, “Eureka! I got it!”

 

He  got pots and earth. He started a small garden - in the back of the building. He got mustard seeds – watermelon seeds – flower seeds - and he and the kids became amateur farmers.

 

He went to a small kitchen in their building and got the necessaries to make bread. He and the kids then became amateur bakers.

 

It worked. Slowly the kids were healed.  The psychiatrist as well.

 

[Mass for Tuesday 30^th Week of the Year]