Sickness! When we do not see it as a situation in which God is revealed, it remains as that which damages Man. Yet, sickness can be a capacity for being transformed from a being a state of decline to one of encountering God’s mercy. And thus one waits for what might remain in him and what might go. And this waiting is not one of dilemmatic suffering but that of the bliss of receiving mercy. And mercy is not so unless it comes from God. And this is bestowed by Him and received by us so that our yearning for Him becomes stronger.
If you believe in Grace you are able to see things. You strive to earn good health because you believe it is the sign of wholeness. But wholeness is not only in the well being of the body. There is always a frailty that appears in us which makes us turn to God allowing Him to have a stronger grip on us. And because the frailty in one is different from that in the other, the relationship that God has with each of us is unique; yet we know that our common meeting place is in His great mercy.
The bestowing of this strength on us can become a crisis in that we do not see sometimes what life is in its reality. At times we are far from the thoughts that God has for us. For example, in the story of the paralytic, Jesus says to him: “Your sins are forgiven.” Yet what was wanted was the healing of the body, while Jesus was concerned for the healing of the whole being, a healing that can take place through repentance. As such sickness, if it leads us to repentance, is a blessing.
An illness can be ascension to contemplate His holy face. At times you ask one about his health and he answers with a deep down conviction and honesty that “he is well”; that person is definitely often close to God. One like this sees with God’s light. That is what the matter is about.
But not all sickness is a visitation from the Divine Presence. The case is so when one is treading the road of holiness even if it is for a time. In this the intercessions of those in Sainthood comes down on us; our existence then goes beyond the corporal having been assumed by the sanctifying Spirit into Real Being.
The Sick is held in honor in the Gospel since Jesus says” I was sick and you visited me not” as he said “I was hungry and you did not give me to eat”. That implies that Jesus is in those who are sick and is one with them. The person who is bedridden in pain is not alone; his companion in He who has been ridden on the Cross and trampled down under unjust humanity. One can hear Jesus say to every one whose health has been damaged: “l am with you to the Holies to bind you to my Spirit so that you will become something other than this damaged body; you would dwell in the compassion of God to walk the path of His resurrection so that your resurrection will be consummated on a day God appoints for you in His wisdom when He bestows upon you the grace of death as a window to the True Light”. And when you say to the Father in full surrender “your will be done” then the Holy Spirit will take His abode in the depth of your heart; and at that True Knowledge begins.
Myriads and myriads of the sick in the world lift you with their suffering when you become one of them since they are one in misery and many are one in intercession because God is with those who are broken. They are the excellent ones in the people of God and also those chosen for his love. God prepares for His glory the sick who strive and struggle and are patient till the end for there is no healing for them until they get to Heaven.
With such a vision of sickness there is no point in asking why we fall sick. You get to realize, during your ordeal and after you are healed, the sanctifying presence of God and His union with you; and that is so in the illness you think is “the abyss”; but with God you discover it is not so.
Every man is sick at heart and awaits corruptibility since the day he is born. That is characteristic of our nature, in its moral and physical aspect and through this corruption we head towards death. This brokenness indicates weakness in our daily lives. Blessed is he who considers himself broken and weak. That could be a lesson in humility and knowledge that helps us manage our earthly lives with what we succeed in or fail in.
Looking at man as he is, I find him weak in his body and wounded in his spirit. As someone told me jokingly: “All of us are three percent insane at the start”. And when I read the psychological analysis I understood that no human being is free of neurosis. According to that the world is an insane asylum and we have to live together as we are all insane to a certain extent.
This wounded humanity is loved by us despite its limitations, falls and tears. We can improve ourselves through education and medicine. Also through consecration and sacrifice we give ourselves to the poor among the sick; those that are abandoned and uninsured in many countries.
Humanity is then in a perennial state of cure and recovery; and in a state of prayer when hope is envisioned. Those strong in the Lord take care of the weak thus those given and those who give receive support. And in this struggle we do not forget our brethren the insane and those with psychological handicaps.
It is important that those who are injured do not withdraw to themselves so that they can remain in a state where they can give to their peers and to those who are “healthy” so that humanity is fulfilled through love and prayer. The increase of ordeals in life does not imply a belittlement of existence. The decline in our corporeal nature is not the issue; the catastrophe is the breakdown of our being. Death itself is not the catastrophe; death is only a “veiling” of our existence because the reality is in the resurrection from the dead in which we have our consolation even when sickness is destroying that (the body) through which death reveals itself. The comparison is not between life and death; but the option is between the breakdown in one’s being or its wellness in that God becomes the “all” of that being and as such you are lifted up by God. This happens only if you get the “support” of the poor and the sick, the little brothers of Jesus.
Why did Jesus give much attention to the sick so much to the point of performing miracles on them and preaching the good news to them as it came in the Bible in Matthew 4: 23, 24:”And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.”
What was Jesus’ motive in performing miracles? Matthew 9:35, 36 makes that clear: “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”
You receive God’s compassion in good health and ill health because regardless of your state, you yearn for the companionship of the Savior. Your ultimate concern is the Lord’s closeness to you above that of the world.
Has closeness to God been obtained; that’s in God’s hands. Every believer awaits the Day of Judgment with faith that he will not be condemned. He trusts that he will not be brought to judgment for fear that he would be condemned because his life is to be in God’s presence accepting His blame and fearing death. That is why he prays.
All these thoughts cross the mind of the sick person. Those with good health might not find themselves in such a confrontation leading them to think that they are fine with God. One questions whether the sick have the grace of reflecting on God and one’s judgment. One also wonders at the implication and meaning of “lead us not into temptation”.
No doubt that physical weakness can bring us to contemplate death and the resulting fear due to it. Even Jesus dreaded that. Death is a serious issue and I know of those who do not dread it; those who believe in the resurrection of Jesus.
O Lord lift from us the burden of fear.
Translated by Riad Moufarrij
Original Text: “المريض” – 05.02.2011
