Thomas W. McGovern - What Christ Suffered: A Doctors Journey Through the Passion

A Doctors Journey Through the Passion

Thomas W. McGovern, MD

Foreword by Bishop James Conley

Nihil Obstat

Msgr. Michael Heintz, Ph.D.

Censor Librorum

Imprimatur

Kevin C. Rhoades

Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend

September 1, 2020

Except where noted, the Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright 1965, 1966, 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Copyright 2021 by Thomas W. McGovern, MD

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ISBN: 978-1-68192-576-9 (Inventory No. T2447)

1. RELIGIONChristian TheologyHistory.

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LCCN: 2020946018

Cover and interior design: Lindsey Riesen

Cover art: Restored Traditions

Interior art: All images of the Shroud of Turin are copyright Barrie M. Schwortz Collecton, STERA, Inc. All rights reserved.

P RINTED IN THE U NITED S TATES OF A MERICA

To Sally, without whom both this book and its author would not be what they are

A few years after I converted to the Catholic Church during my undergraduate years, someone gave me a copy of the slim little paperback work entitled A Doctor at Calvary, by Pierre Barbet, MD. Dr. Barbet, a surgeon who served on the battlefields of World War I, had access to photographic negatives from 1898 of the Holy Shroud of Turin, upon which he based a forensic analysis of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

That groundbreaking book opened my eyes to the sufferings of the Lord.

Dr. Barbet wrote his book in 1950. Given the advances in science over the past seventy years, I have long hoped an updated study might be written. Dr. Thomas McGovern has done just that. His scientifically up-to-date analysis of the Lords Passion and death has also incorporated the Christian anthropology of Saint John Paul II as it is articulated in his 1984 apostolic exhortation on suffering, Salvifici Doloris.

Dr. McGovern examines in minute detail the physiological aspects of the sufferings of Jesus, drawing upon the literature, both modern and ancient, as well as his own experience as a physician. McGovern has also traveled in the Holy Land extensively and has deep knowledge of the land where Jesus lived and died.

The inevitability of suffering is universal. It is something in which all humanity shares. And the question of suffering and why we all have to suffer is one that everyone must ask, at some time in their lives.

The world tries to run away from suffering because it sees suffering as meaningless. The world believes and teaches us that suffering is absurd and must, if possible, be eradicated. But Saint John Paul II, in the opening lines of Salvifici Doloris, points us to Saint Pauls Letter to the Colossians when he writes: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christs afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church (1:24). This mysterious passage from Saint Paul is the key to understanding the meaning and purpose of suffering, and it provides the backdrop of Dr. McGoverns book.

Dr. McGovern does not stop with the physical sufferings of the Lord. He also reflects upon the mental and emotional sufferings of the Lord. He describes how the Lord experienced fear, sorrow, anxiety, and mental distress. Because the Lord is true God and true man, he willingly chose, in his Passion and death, to suffer the human sufferings that we all experience. These profound insights remind me of Saint John Henry Newmans famous discourse on the Mental Sufferings of the Lord in His Passion. When a person suffers from some kind of mental distress, they can take solace in the fact that the Lord has been there too, and he understands this unique kind of suffering that is so common today.

Saint John Paul II often quoted a very famous passage from the Second Vatican Councils Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes: Christ fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear (22). In other words, it is only in coming to know Jesus and growing in friendship with him that we discover our true selves and our mission in life. Dr. McGovern applies this to the subject of the sufferings of Christ. As we come to understand the full meaning and depth of Christs suffering, we begin to make sense of our own suffering and that of others. Dr. McGovern concludes by telling us that Christ showed us how to suffer: He gave meaning to suffering and offers us the profound gift of finding meaning in our own suffering.

Christs suffering gives meaning to our suffering. Understanding the Lords suffering helps us understand the meaning of our own. In What Christ Suffered: A Doctors Journey Through the Passion, Dr. Thomas McGovern gives us insight into the Lords suffering, and into his abundant and transforming love for us.

James D. Conley
Bishop of Lincoln

Author lectoring during Mass on Calvary, Lent 2018. The Rock of Calvary is visible through the glass behind the Missionaries of Charity. The altar behind the sisters is the Greek Orthodox altar that is located on the traditional site of the crucifixion of Jesus. (Thomas W. McGovern)

G od created me with a deep desire to connect ideas and people that at first might not seem to have anything in common. During my time in medical school, my love of biology, anatomy, and medicine met my love for Christ and his Church. One day, an experience not only touched my reason, which is my usual way of approaching the world, but also ignited my heart.

During my first year at Mayo Medical School, since I was teaching fifth grade religious education at my parish, I thought it would be a good idea during Lent to teach my students about the suffering that Jesus endured for them. So, after a pathology lecture in mid-March 1986, I approached my professor, Dr. William Edwards, who was known to be a Christian. I asked Dr. Edwards if he had any information on the crucifixion. He said, Come back to me after class tomorrow, and Ill have something for you.