Physical Health and Spiritual Health (Fr. Steve's Recent Surgery Unpacked) - Ep. 118

Father Steve Williams here with Saints in the Parish Podcast.

Happy to have you with us here and co-host Donald Paul Maddox.

We haven't I haven't been on for a while because I was ill, uh, had a long illness.

And so uh today's episode, we're gonna talk a little bit about health, I thought most appropriate, and and spirituality and how the two kind of go hand in hand.

Um, because that's also an issue that uh obviously a lot of people, if they don't have it now, they certainly will have some illness at some point in their lives.

And so, how do you kind of deal with that?

And how do you get back physically healthy?

And then how do you get spiritually healthy, which is ultimately our goal?

And we talk a lot about that on this particular podcast.

So um, so really um good to be back with you, Donald Paul.

And I know you've had quite a few episodes um without me, and that's great, and um kind of really help the people um grow in their spirituality.

Again, this podcast is uh oriented toward those that are sitting in the pews, that go to church, that that are faithful servants of our Lord, that care about charity, they care about um serving others, they care about worship of God, so they participate at mass.

So very faithful people, but they want to they want to go uh a little farther.

So, like if you think about, you know, the homily, you know, the rest of the story.

So you get more, you know, which we're all called to do that.

We're called to do more in our spiritual life, not just, you know, go to mass.

We're actually called to do more.

And so this is an opportunity that we give you to do more.

And uh we challenge you.

We offer, sometimes we offer homework for you, we offer um, you know, a chance for you to ask some questions, which is really important.

So this morning, I wanted to talk a little bit about health.

Well, as some of you realize, uh I had open heart surgery.

So I had five bypasses in in January and uh and then was doing very well in the recovery process and then uh ran into some uh pretty serious complications.

As in life, things don't go the way that we want, and then those complications cost me another month or two.

So I've been away for about I've been away for about three months.

I guess I came back a little bit, a little bit after Easter.

I was able to kind of limp into Easter, which of course wanted to celebrate Easter and was able to do that, and then slowly but surely kind of making progress was released by the doctors about two months ago so that I could get back to full-scale work and um certainly been catching up.

So it's been a while for me to kind of catch up with everything that's going on or that I need to do.

So wanted to talk to you a little bit about us being healthy.

Um, you know, again, I sometimes when I talk about us being healthy, I feel like I'm the pot calling the kettle black.

You know, I'm like not the picture of healthiness, but um, but I think it is important for us to exercise.

I think that image is a great image for us to use that same image in our spiritual lives.

So we exercise physically because we know that's going to help our bodies to be the best it possibly can be.

Well, our souls, same thing.

We want to exercise our souls so that we can um so we can be the best we possibly can be spiritually.

I know while I was in the hospital um for quite a long time, I was able to uh offer a lot of prayers.

So, so that was really good.

Like I was able to pray the rosary several times a day because I there was obviously nothing on TV and didn't have anything else to do but just lay there and pray.

And um, so I was so I was just sitting there thinking of all the things I would like to pray for.

And that's what I did a significant part of the day, just everything that I wanted to pray for, from people that are going through divorce to single, single parents, to a teenager who's struggling with, you know, anxiety issues, or the teenager that's struggling with, you know, depression, loneliness, being bullied at school.

Um, just so many our young people are just bombarded constantly.

So I was able to kind of pray for for them, pray for uh all those other people that were in the hospital with me, uh a lot who were a lot more serious than I was.

And I was able to kind of offer my prayers for for them.

And um and even my patience, which I'm not very patient, but I was like, well, this is a great opportunity for to become a little bit more patient and not, you know, because I kept asking the doctor, well, when is this gonna get better?

When is this gonna get when is this gonna get better?

And she was wonderful, she was really wonderful, and she just said, We don't really know.

And I was like joking, I said, This is 2026, we know everything.

She said, No, we don't, and our bodies are all different, so we can't, you know, apply one thing to all everybody, and so I understood that, and um, but patiently was able to make my way back to the altar, which was the first thing I wanted to do when I got well was to celebrate Mass.

So I celebrated Mass on Ash Wednesday, and then I got sick after that again, and then I was out really for the whole time during Lent and came back about Easter time, and then since Easter I've been I've been going full steam ahead.

So um here we are, um kind of the end of the summer and just now able to get back.

I'm just getting back to my regular schedule and doing everything.

So um, so just want to uh want to think about and reflect upon how important it is to be physically healthy.

Why I think this is so important and relates to our spiritual life is that when we're not physically healthy, we under we really know that.

You know, I could not move at all.

Even if I wanted, I couldn't move.

And uh it was painful, I was in pain.

And so, you know, that's a great reality to understand sometimes how our souls are, where maybe we can't move with in our spiritual life.

Maybe we maybe we need to um maybe we need some healing in our spiritual lives, and that's what Jesus offers us.

Christ offers us an ability to be healed.

And uh I know um Archbishop Ruby Tusso uh had a healing service at various parishes throughout the archdiocese, one of whom was St.

Lawrence, and so many people came to that particular healing service.

And uh he was able to pray with people that wanted to be healed.

We anointed people, we offered reconciliation, all of the tools that Christ gave us to be healed.

And just as we recognize how important it is to be physically healthy, then we should also recognize how important it is to be spiritually healthy and and uh and what it takes to get there.

And I know when we're um when we're doing something physical, and I can think of a lot of you know opportunities like, you know, if you're swimming, uh maybe not out in the bay nowadays, right now, because it's so hot, but uh maybe, you know, when it's cooler, you're out swimming, or if you're out working in your garden, uh, or if you're you know, maybe go to the gym, maybe play basketball.

Um, there's so many things that you can do.

How much better do you feel, even if you're sore after you finish doing the the event, but how much better do you feel when you're physically moving?

Our bodies were made to physically move.

And so if we if we just sit, you know, and become kind of a couch potato, then we don't feel good.

I mean, there's some there's a physical reality, but there's also some psychological reality, you know, um, that we have where we don't feel like we're reaching our uh maximum potential.

And and again, I would say it's the same thing in our spiritual lives.

We want to we want to feel like we're able to reach our maximum potential.

So how would that be on a spiritual level?

Uh if you've completed finished praying the rosary, if you just come out of mass and you got a lot out of mass, and uh but you enjoyed the mass, if you just went and did some charitable act like feeding the poor, you know, maybe brought some dry goods to the church pantry for the poor.

I mean, that's a there's a good feeling that goes along with it.

And that's the feeling's not the most important thing, and it's not the only thing, but it does help us along our journey.

It really does help us a lot along our journey.

So, any any any questions about healthiness and physical um reality come to mind as it pertains to our spirituality?

Yeah, one thing I was thinking about that I think would be really helpful for you to explain to people that are listening, because I think a lot of people, maybe maybe not the exact audience we're talking to, because they might recognize this reality, but they know people who experience this reality.

Your experience of having open heart surgery and then having complications, and that would typically I think be cause for like anger or maybe some depression or frustration, maybe specifically at God, if you're a faithful person because of that situation.

So how how did you firstly how did you maintain that it was a good because you turned that into praying for other people?

And how how can if if somebody is dealing with that or if somebody they know is dealing with that, how can they help see that you know sometimes God God doesn't punish us in that way, but God does allow us to experience certain things for an ultimate good, which for you was obviously, or the things that you know at least were you got to pray for other people, you got to not only for your own spiritual life, but you got to intercede for hundreds of people probably over that time.

So kind of help help some of our audience understand that reality.

You know, the very first thing we have to acknowledge is that not one of us are guaranteed one more day on this earth.

And you just have to come to the realization as you're living your life, you have to realize that all of us are going to come to the end of our lives here on earth.

And it could be tomorrow and it could be 20 years from now, it could be 30 years from now.

We don't know that.

And I think what that does is that gives us a greater thirst for life.

Like we love every day because we don't know how many more days we're gonna have on this earth.

I mean, that that is important reality, you know, and so uh so I recognize that, but just recently I um I was in the hospital and I anointed someone, and um he subsequently died.

And his wife was very, very upset.

Very, very upset.

And uh she's like, he had the exact same surgery you had, because most of the people in the parish know what exactly surgery I had, and he's the same age as me, and he had the same surgery, and he he didn't make it.

And she was upset.

She just and I was like, Well, you know, uh when I went into it, they made it very clear to me, too, that this is not a guaranteed thing, you know.

So you have to you have to just say to the Lord, Lord, let your will be done, as difficult as that is, and that is challenging, but that's important.

You know, and if it is your will that I be on this earth, then again, we have that thirst for life, we have that appreciation for life, that kind of renewed spirit of really trying to do God's will in this world.

And you know, I'll I mean, I'll be honest with you, you know, the older we get, the more we realize that time is coming near, you know, and we have to kind of understand that and really appreciate that too.

I mean, it just means we love life, you know, just a little bit more.

But um, and I and of course, you know, happy to be I'm happy to be back and serving the Lord in whatever capacity I can.

But uh also helps me with others that realize that, you know, this isn't um this, you know, this is this is a difficult thing.

Did it change, did anything change for you?

Did it did anything change the way that you now minister to people?

Yeah, I mean, I guess it does give you again, it gives you that greater appreciation for life and for the uh even for the urgency, you know, you say, well, we got plenty of time, so we won't worry about doing this, but but no, I think we it does kind of add a little bit of urgency to what we're doing that we don't just that we really don't take it for granted.

And um subsequently I've been able to go in and talk to people because I see so many people that have the same surgery I had, and it does give me a good reason to talk to them and and even you know, um I I celebrated I had a wedding, and um after the wedding, one of the groomsmen comes up to me and he said, I heard you just had open heart surgery, and I said, I did.

He said, I I just can't believe, you know, that you just had it, and here you are celebrating this wedding.

And I said, Yeah, well, it, you know, it didn't, it took a little while to get over it, but he said, Well, that gives me a lot of hope because my dad's gonna have it in in a week, and I was really nervous, but seeing you really helped me um, you know, hope that he does as well recovering as you did.

So that was kind of interesting.

So it gives me a chance to kind of talk to people about, you know, some major surgery that they're gonna have in their lives.

And it's much more common today.

A lot more people are having these kind of surgeries than ever before.

And so, um, and I think the more we have them, the more we have to be careful that we don't take it for granted that it's always gonna be, you know, positive outcome too.

So um that kind of helped a little bit.

But I will tell you, I really did enjoy praying for everyone.

I really did.

I just sat there and just was thinking of, because you know, you can only read so much, you can only watch so much TV, and you just get, you know, I was like, well, I just want to pray the rosary and um and just think of all the people I'd like to pray for.

Just so many people out there that need prayer, and so it's a it was a wonderful thing.

And I couldn't move, so I couldn't move.

So I was kind of bedridden for that time too, which in and of itself has its own kind of because you're laying in the room and you're just you know, it's just this is all you see, you know, for a long time, a long period of time.

This is you sit to see these walls, you know, so you just have to make sure that you do have good mental health and really appreciate a lot of what you have.

But uh, I think that um it is really incumbent on us to try and be as healthy as we possibly can.

So, of course, because of that, subsequently I'm trying to make an effort to go to the gym and to exercise a little bit more than I certainly than I did before.

And so I run into a lot of our teenagers at the gym, and um I'm really encouraging to them.

I said, Hey, the more y'all do when you're younger, the better off you'll be when you get older, you know, and so I'm really trying to encourage them to live good, healthy lives, too.

Good.

Yeah, that's great.

Well, it's great to have you back and definitely got some episodes coming up and um some good things coming.

Uh next week, we're gonna talk a little bit about philosophy.

We did a, I don't remember exactly what episode it was, but you can go back and look at it.

But we originally did a philosophy episode very early on, maybe the first 20, 25 episodes.

Yeah, we're gonna talk about well, obviously, you're doing a class on philosophy, so I'm gonna talk to you, I'm gonna ask you some questions about what's the subject, what's the question that they had the most in your class, because I'm interested to know what the people are thinking.

But there's two concepts in philosophy that I want to make sure that our faithful really understand.

And if you don't understand these two concepts, then I think that those are the two concepts I want to send you home on your homework, you know, when we talk about that.

And um this is just a teaser for our next episode, but I want to talk about the the ends and the means.

When you hear those words thrown about, you need to know exactly what that means.

You know, does the ends justify the means?

You'll hear that thrown about all the time, you know, in in in certain certain circles.

And so you need to understand what are the means, the way you get to it, and what is the end.

Okay, so that's that's one concept we're gonna talk about.

And the other concept, and this is again very important, just the basic, I consider it to be very basic, is something called natural law.

So you have to, when someone says that, you know, natural law, what exactly do they mean by that?

And there's a big difference between natural law and the laws of nature.

Two different, two different things.

Sound kind of similar, don't they?

But they really aren't similar at all.

And so understanding natural law is going to be really important for us.

And so if you can understand those two concepts, I personally think you'll be, you know, far ahead, and you can help others that you run into.

You can help others when they use those, because a lot of times the world uses them in a secular way to kind of prove what they want to prove, but you'll be able to say, no, no, these need to be used in a in a godly way, in a good spiritual way.

So there's a lot to talk about in philosophy.

Don't so so you know, next week, catch the episode, and um let's uh listen to what we let's listen to what the Lord wants us to hear.

Yep.

And we will see you in the next episode.

God bless.