DELRAY BEACH | Do you have high blood pressure? Problems regulating your blood sugar? Not sleeping soundly? Are you looking older than your age? Then Father Dennis Gonzales has a remedy. It’s called forgiveness.
In his homily at a March 15, 2025, healing Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Delray Beach, where he is the pastor, Father Gonzales urged those in attendance, many of whom are Catholic health care professionals, to adhere to the teachings of Jesus from the day’s Gospel reading: “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The morning liturgy was sponsored by the Palm Beach Physicians Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, which was formed in 2016 as a forum for fellowship and guidance on complex biomedical and workplace issues. Father Gonzales, who was trained as a nurse, called forward all health care professionals and led them in renewing their promises to care for their patients in humble service, following the church’s teachings on faith and morals, and to promote the guild’s work.
“We bless you, and especially today, we ask the Lord Jesus Christ to give you a special grace so that your presence will be a source of comfort and healing to those people that the Lord entrusts to your care,” he told them.
Forgiving your enemies, as Jesus said in the Gospel, is a method of healing the bruises everyone gets in life, Father Gonzales said in his homily. “Forgiveness means you do not dwell in your sadness. You don’t dwell on those unpleasant memories. You don’t dwell on the negativities,” he said.
“This is another bonus. If you forgive your enemy, you also bring that person closer to the Lord Jesus Christ,” Father Gonzales said. “And you know what the Lord says: When you bring a person, a lost sheep, back to the fold, all the angels and saints in heaven are rejoicing, and with that rejoicing of the angels, you also open their hearts to receive God’s tremendous blessings.”
Beyond forgiveness, the bare minimum is to pray for your enemies, he added. “Don’t pray that they will get the COVID infection or they will be bankrupt from their business, but pray that they will do well in life. Pray that the Lord will also touch them, and also will be ready to forgive you or forgive those others who have hurt them. This way all of us will experience the loving grace of God, and all of us will be on the road to healing.”
Following the Mass, Father Gonzales and other clergy anointed with holy oil the faithful who came forward. To learn more about the Palm Beach Physicians Guild, email palmbeachphysiciansguild@gmail.com.
