{"id":4826,"date":"2009-04-22T06:02:35","date_gmt":"2009-04-22T06:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/in-her-memory-by-bradley-nassi.html"},"modified":"2009-04-22T06:02:35","modified_gmt":"2009-04-22T06:02:35","slug":"in-her-memory-by-bradley-nassi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/in-her-memory-by-bradley-nassi.html","title":{"rendered":"In Her Memory: by Bradley Nassif"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is from a colleague of mine, Bradley Nassif, who teaches theology at North Park University. Brad is an Eastern Orthodox theologian.<\/p>\n

<\/i>My mother, Lydia, only had an 8th grade education and waited tables
\nfor a living.  She was poor and had 4 children to raise alone.  A
\ntragic thing happen to her when she was 50 years old.  She became
\ncrippled for life after a surgeon made a horrifying mistake while
\noperating on her feet.  The doctor confused her with the wrong patient
\nor procedure.  Mom originally went into the hospital to correct a
\nhammer toe that was bothering one of her feet.  Instead, the doctor
\nended up removing a massive area of her feet related to the metatarsus
\nthat attached her toes.  After the surgery she could no longer wiggle
\nany of the toes or keep steady when standing because the connecting
\nparts had all been removed.  Several bones were left jagged which poked
\nher flesh from the inside of her feet.  Often at night she would wake
\nup with throbbing pain.  Medicine helped take the edge off the pain but
\nthere was always a constant numbing or buzzing in her feet from the
\nnerve endings that had been cut. <\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
Mom had ten corrective surgeries
\nafter that to try to fix the initial mistake but without success.  She
\nwent from a shoe size 7 to a size 3 ?.<\/p>\n
\n
\n

<\/p>\n

Mother was never able to go
\nback to work after that so the pressure of her financial needs fell
\nlargely on us kids.  She went to a lawyer to seek justice.  The lawyer
\ntold mom that the doctor claimed he had lost the original x-ray that
\nwas taken “before” the surgery so her case could not be proven.  That
\nx-ray would have showed two perfectly good feet that did not need the
\nsurgery which the doctor had wrongly performed on her.  So instead of
\nreceiving a just settlement, mother was awarded a meager $900.00.  Five
\nyears later, the lawyer died of cancer.  <\/p>\n

In a chance meeting, mother
\nran into his secretary on the street and was told that her lawyer
\naccepted a bribe from the doctor’s insurance company and that is why
\nshe lost the case.  We did all we could for her, but for the rest of
\nher life Mom lived with severe chronic pain until her death in 2002 at
\nthe age of seventy-nine.<\/p>\n

Some of us have to endure great trials for
\nlong periods of time.  For reasons that are sometimes known only to the
\nAlmighty, God allows great evil to come into our lives.  Like the story
\nof Job in the Old Testament, our faith is severely tested.  We are
\ncalled upon to live with a great mystery, the mystery of suffering. 
\nThat is why mother’s story is worth telling during this season of our
\nLord’s great Passion and Resurrection.  Hers was a life of faith.  She
\nneeded faith to believe that God was somehow working his purposes
\nthrough her physically ruined life; she needed faith to forgive the
\ndoctor that had so brutally wronged her through his negligence; she
\nneeded faith to fight evil thoughts of revenge that bombarded her soul
\nday after day; she needed faith to let herself be helped by others when
\nshe seemed unable to give back so little; she needed faith to overcome
\nthe worry of losing her home when the bills came due; she needed faith
\nin God’s final judgment where, on the Last Day, “the books will be
\nopened” and justice will be given to all the unjust people that harmed
\nher during the most vulnerable time of her life.<\/p>\n

During this sacred
\nseason of divine suffering, the good news of the Gospel gives great
\nhope to those of us who know the sorrow of unjust suffering.  We can
\nnot always know why God allows us to suffer, but our Orthodox faith
\ntells us that He is accomplishing redemptive purposes through it.  Our
\nPaschal liturgy proclaims “Through the cross, joy has come into all the
\nworld … Christ is Risen!”  And because of that, I suffer, but do not
\ndespair whenever I recall the life of my dear mother.  Her grief ended
\nseven years ago as she fell asleep in the arms of her Lord, who Himself
\nsuffered unjustly on her behalf.  And one day I, too, will join her
\nwhen I die in faith and in hope of the Resurrection.  This is the “good
\nnews” of the Gospel that is so clear and central to the Orthodox
\nfaith.  I invite you to embrace it for yourself today.<\/p>\n

Bradley Nassif, Ph.D.
Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies
North Park University<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is from a colleague of mine, Bradley Nassif, who teaches theology at North Park University. Brad is an Eastern Orthodox theologian. My mother, Lydia, only had an 8th grade education and waited tables for a living.  She was poor and had 4 children to raise alone.  A tragic thing happen to her when she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Her Memory: by Bradley Nassif - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/04\/in-her-memory-by-bradley-nassi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Her Memory: by Bradley Nassif - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is from a colleague of mine, Bradley Nassif, who teaches theology at North Park University. 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