After Javier Pizana had a heart attack last fall at 61, despite working out daily and watching his diet, he remembers being "mad at God."
But the physical affront ended up deepening the Catholic faith he was born into. His care and recovery inspired him to become a Eucharistic minister.
"I told my wife, 'If the Lord heals my heart, and heals me as a person strong enough, I want to give the body of Christ to those people I saw when I was walking the halls at the hospital,'" Pizana recalls.
Nowadays, the retired car salesman visits, brings Communion and offers prayers twice a week to patients at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi — Shoreline, in Texas, where he underwent surgery and cardiac rehabilitation.
Pizana takes his new role and his visits on Mondays and Thursdays to the CHRISTUS Health hospital very seriously. "This is the most important job that a man who is not a priest can have," he says. "You hear all over the Bible that we should take care of the sick and the elderly. That's what I'm doing."
Surgery then rehabilitation
Pizana's health emergency began on Sept. 29 after he returned home from his mother's 84th birthday party. He felt sudden, repeated stiffness and pressure on the right side of his neck and head throughout the night.
Since his symptoms felt mild, he went to an urgent care center. The staff there sent him to CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi — Shoreline. "We walked in, explained what happened, and were immediately seen," Pizana recalls.
The doctor showed Pizana a diagram of his heart that clearly revealed eight blockages. He had triple bypass surgery at the CHRISTUS hospital Oct. 2 and later eight weeks of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation.
On his visits, Pizana walked the hospital floor and noticed many severely ill patients there without visitors.
"That touched me deeply," he says. "On the day of my surgery, 35 people waited to see me as soon as I woke up, something I attribute to my upbringing in the Catholic Church and the support from family and friends."
His room was so often filled with visitors that nurses called it "the party room."
Accepting a deeper role as a Catholic
Pizana sees more than coincidences in experiences he had at CHRISTUS. For example, on his first day of rehabilitation, he remembers walking past the hospital chapel without stopping to say a prayer. "I saw the chapel, but I was mad at God still," he recalls. "I felt like (I was) walking with blinders, not going in there."
The second time he went to cardiac therapy, he had a change of heart. After his therapy, he decided to attend Mass at the chapel. Looking around, he noticed no one was there to read the scripture, so he volunteered.
"I'd been reading all my life. I'm a lector. I love to read with a lot of intention," Pizana says. "I want everyone to get the word of God and listen to it."
A woman who was attending the Mass and the priest told him they liked how he reads, precisely and slowly, with feeling. The priest asked him if he'd like to read again and become a Eucharistic minister at the hospital.
Then Pizana looked more closely at the woman, and asked, "Is that you, Frances?" The woman was Frances Trevino, the older sister of friends from his teenage years.
Trevino was surprised to be remembered after so many years and to reconnect with her brothers' old friend.
Trevino has been a volunteer Eucharistic minister for 20 years. She says she finds personal growth in helping those who are sick, learning to let go of her own concerns, and allowing God to work through her.
"Over the years, this experience has become a blessing as I witness people's struggles and bring Jesus or prayer to them," she says.
Before leaving the chapel, Pizana took Communion from Trevino. "I told my wife that was really special," he recalls.
A revelation
Also special was a visit he had gotten from retired Bishop Edmond Carmody, who had once led the Corpus Christi diocese. The bishop came the day of Pizana's surgery to offer the anointing of the sick sacrament and pray over him.
Pizana says it was that visit and his encounter with Trevino that inspired him to follow through on the priest's request and become a Eucharistic minister. "When the priest asked me, that was an answered prayer from God," he says.
He completed the required religious training earlier this year. He also went on a four-day retreat for Catholic men. "Spending time in prayer and meditation during the retreat helped me deeply understand the true presence of Jesus," he says. "I feel like I had a revelation at the retreat, that God allowed me to have this heart attack and go to that retreat so that I understood clearly what I'm doing now as an extraordinary minister for the Catholic Church."
Helping even those who feel hopeless
In his role as a hospital volunteer and Eucharistic minister, Pizana feels particularly strongly about helping people who feel hopeless or beyond God's help.
He shares the story of a man whose dim room and demeanor revealed what he sensed to be "obvious sadness."
"I smiled and assured him that I was present to offer prayer, hope and compassion," he recalls. "He admitted, 'I'm a sinner, a truly bad sinner.' I replied, 'So am I.'"
The man asked Pizana how he could confess. "I told him to speak honestly, as he did with me, and assured him there were priests who could help. Seeing his tears, I realized my purpose in this ministry. I offered support and guidance, noting that he became emotional and expressed gratitude."
This exchange occurred on a Thursday, and Pizana stopped in again to see the man the following Monday.
"When I went back the environment was well lit, with the blinds open and the television on," he says. "Upon my arrival, he looked up, acknowledged me, and smiled."
Pizana saw a miraculous change in the man's demeanor.
"He said, 'You made me wake up.' I said, 'No, man, it was God. I'm just a middleman,'" Pizana recalls. "I love God and I want everyone to love God. And he was ready to make his confession, and he was going to start back in church again. That's when you know God is working. God is strong."