Likening the Providence Health System to the parable of the mustard seed at an anniversary Mass Aug. 7, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory praised its many ministries as “a mighty expression of compassionate care” that began “modestly small.”
At a Mass in the Crypt Chapel of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception celebrating the 160th year of the Providence system, Cardinal Gregory told the congregation in his homily that the point of the story of the mustard seed in Scripture is not simply that such seeds are small. “But also because it is capable of developing into something much greater than itself,” he said. “The mustard seed has potential. It contains possibility.”
Providence Hospital in the Michigan Park area of Northeast Washington, D.C., was founded by the Daughters of Charity in 1861 and had served patients in Washington for more than 150 years. The Providence system’s flagship hospital closed in 2018 after Providence became a part of Ascension, a nationwide nonprofit Catholic health care organization. Providence Urgent Care center opened in the former hospital in the summer of 2019. The location also offers a pharmacy and a variety of clinical, diagnostic and specialized medical services, with plans to continue to expand what is available there.
As part of the 160th anniversary Mass, the offertory procession included a copy of the hospital’s articles of incorporation, which were signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The hospital was originally opened to treat wounded soldiers during the Civil War.
Several dozen employees at the Mass joined in reciting the Providence mission statement, which concludes: “We are advocates for a compassionate and just society through our actions and our words.”
Cardinal Gregory’s homily concluded by proposing that the parable of the mustard seed told by Jesus was a call to “consider placing real trust in ourselves and in others as a means to leaning how to trust God.”
Further, he said, “dare I even suggest that this mustard seed reference might be urging us to trust ourselves and that this will lead us to extraordinary feats?” Today’s skeptical world leads some people to believe they can only trust themselves, he continued. “I beg to differ. Our skepticism is often so deep-seated that we don’t even trust our own instincts, our dreams, or occasionally our basic decency. That just might be the mustard seed to which Jesus referred. Having faith in ourselves may well be the kernel of faith that will lead us to trust in others and eventually even to have faith in God himself.”
