Blood Brothers

Tonight I watched an episode of MASH about a soldier who's in bad shape in the OR and his friend (Patrick Swayze) who won't leave his side. His support is key in helping the friend get better, until he's up for getting a blood transfusion. The good guy friend offers to give him his blood, but when they take a sample they learn that he has leukemia. And it's on Hawkeye to tell him, and he's hesitant to but he does.

In a parallel plot a monsignor is visiting and Father Mulcahy is trying his hardest to get people to take a break from their drinking and gambling so it won't be an embarrassment before the monsignor. No-one wants to listen to him, so the high level priest sees the warts that the Father wanted to cover up.

Mulchahey goes to Hawkeye to vent about how rotten the people in the 4077 are, but Hawkeye has a harder time than usual being empathetic to the priest. Hawkeye tells Father Mulchahy that he just had to tell a young man about that young man's having leukemia. Mulchahey is there immediately for Hawkeye, offering understanding and consolation.

Father Mulchahy leaves Hawkeye. He spends all night talking with the young man who is there at his friend's bedside. In the morning Hawkeye finds the father and the boy together and sees that the young man is in better spirits. But the young officer and Hawkeye argue. Hawkeye wants the fellow to go the Tokyo immediately for treatment but the guy wants to stay and be there for his friend, at bedside, when his friend comes to.

Mulchahy takes Hawkeye aside and argues that Hawkeye wants the kid to go to Tokyo because of his own bias, but that it's not what the guys wants and thus is not necessarily what's best for him. Hawkeye changes his tune to the kid and the kid stays.

Someone runs in and reminds Father Mulchahey that it's time for Mass. Still wearing his bathrobe the father goes to the adhoc church. Here are his words:

"Well, uh, here we are. Uh, it's, uh, Sunday again. I'm sure you've all come expecting to hear a sermon. Well, l I have to admit, I'm not as prepared as I'd like to be. In fact, I'm not even dressed as I'd like to be. Y-You see l I was working on my sermon which I hoped would be a particularly inspirational one in honor of Cardinal Reardon. But I was called away and well, to be honest I never got back to it. So, uh if you'll just bear with me. I'd like to share with you the reason why.

I want to tell you about two men each facing his own crisis. The first man you know rather well. The second is a patient here.

Well, the first man thought he was facing a crisis. But what he was really doing was trying to impress someone. He was looking for recognition, encouragement, a pat on the back. And whenever that recognition seemed threatened he reacted rather childishly -blamed everyone for his problems but himself because he was thinking only of himself.

But the second man was confronted by the greatest crisis mortal man can face: the loss of his life. I think you'll agree that the second man had every right to be selfish. But instead he chose to think not of himself but of a brother. And when the first man saw the the dignity and the selflessness of the second man he realized how petty and selfish he had [gasps] - I had been. It made me see something more clearly than I've ever seen it before:

God didn't put us here for that pat on the back. He created us so He could be here himself, so that He could exist in the lives of those he created in his image."