The “Gift” of Illness
God knocks on all our doors in this life in different ways. One of those ways is through what I call “the gift” of illness, because it is in those moments that we tend to let go of many earthly things and allow God into our lives to help us bear those very hard times in Peace.
Illness leads us to understand (if we let God accompany us through it) that the only thing that can give us freedom and complete peace in those moments is to abandon ourselves to His Merciful Love. And that is what I always tell close friends who have suffered, or are suffering, terrible illnesses such as cancer.
I remember, years ago, when a dear friend who has nine children was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and liver, and the doctor sent her home to get everything in order because he gave her about six months to live. She lived outside Venezuela, and I sent her a letter telling her to make the most of that “gift from God” and offer all that suffering and discomfort for the many intentions of her children, relatives, friends and so on. My friend confessed to me that at first she and her family, who read the letter together, didn’t understand it; but as the illness progressed (with everything it brought, such as the support of her family, her neighbors and others), it taught them that the cancer had truly helped them grow as people and as a family in an extraordinary way. It also taught them to put themselves in God’s hands, without, of course, failing to use every scientific means to be cured. My friend bore her illness, and some very hard moments, with great Peace, and in the end she was cured (many say it was a miracle, the doctor included), and there she is, “alive and kicking,” helping take care of her grandchildren.
Another friend, here in Caracas, also had cancer, which lasted less than a year. She told me she thanked God every day for giving her enough time to prepare for death and to say goodbye little by little to her loved ones. I talked with her the day before she died, and the peace she conveyed to me was remarkable.
I consider illness to be like a direct knock on the door from God, so that we will open our hearts to Him and empty ourselves of our selfishness, our pride and whatever faults we may have, and let Him flood our hearts with the Love that nothing and no one in this world can give us.
God knocks on our door to tell us something like: Here I am, my child. Come and lie in my lap and rest in Me, for with Me you have nothing to fear. Fortunately, many people take advantage of these knocks on the door to ask forgiveness in confession; to set right the wrong things they may have done; to show great mercy to others, because they know they too need mercy; and above all to understand that man is Nothing without God, and that He alone can help us understand illness and bear it in the best possible way.
Saint Teresa of Ávila said that the days of illness were the days she was closest to God. And for those of us who have been ill, that is an indescribable truth. In those moments when we are unwell, when we cannot move, cannot read, can hardly speak, when we realize that our body is worth nothing, is good for nothing, all we have left is to close our eyes and be with God, abandon ourselves to Him and ask Him to help us, to lighten the terrible weight we are carrying.
When we have Him, we are amazed at how we can carry such a heavy cross with less of its weight. How different it is to face illness and death with a Christian outlook! Without a doubt, the great triumph of the Christian is that Christ turned death into Life, that eternal life where there will be no more pain, no more sadness, no more tears…
This season of Advent, as we prepare for the birth of the Child Jesus, is a fitting time to open the door to God and let Him in, showing generous signs of forgiveness, reconciliation, repentance and sorrow for whatever wrong we may have done in the past.
God is waiting for us behind that door, so that we may live very close to Him, and so that at the end of our earthly life we may sit down to enjoy the heavenly banquet He has promised us, which will give us eternal happiness forever and ever…
May the Blessed Virgin, under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe (patroness of the Americas), whose feast is today, give all the sick of this earth the fortitude and disposition they need to open the door to God and so bear their pain with Peace and Serenity.
Dear Virgin of Guadalupe, cover them with your mantle and help them in these very difficult moments!