June 17

On Sickness

Preparation. - "The Lord killeth and maketh alive," says Scripture (1 Kings 2. 6). Let us consider, first, that sicknesses are favors, and secondly, how we may profit by them. We shall then resolve never to complain of our bodily infirmities, but to accept them from the hand of God as very effectual means of sanctification. "The Lord killeth and maketh alive."

I. Sicknesses Are Favors.

The saints have always looked upon sickness as a signal favor. "If we knew," says St. Vincent de Paul, "the treasure concealed therein, we would willingly accept it as a signal benefit." One day St. Francis of Assisi was in great suffering.  The brother who assisted him, compassionating him, said: "Father, pray God to treat you more kindly, for He seems to lay His hand too heavily on you." At these words the saint hastened out of bed, knelt down, kissed the floor, and thanking God, protested that he considered sickness as an inappreciable favor. Are these our sentiments, when God tries us with some corporal pain or infirmity? "This sickness is for the glory of God" (John 11. 4).

Mental prayer, undoubtedly, draws down heavenly blessings upon us. But what better mental prayer can we make than to be resigned in suffering? Patience, more powerfully than prayer, does violence to God's heart. Why, then, should we worry when illness prevents us from going to church, from hearing Mass and receiving holy Communion? We shall obtain more spiritual assistance by being resigned to God's holy will than by practicing the devotions we like. "It is more perfect," says St. Bonaventure, "to carry our cross courageously than to abound in good works."

Corporal sufferings are continual occasions of merit. Father Balthasar Alvarez saw one day the great reward prepared in heaven for a good nun who had peacefully borne her sickness. He assured that she had gained more merit during eight months physical pains, than many other fervent souls had gained in many years spent in holy deeds. Pain, indeed, causes us to die to our vices and obliges us to practice the most solid virtues.

O my God, make me prize all sufferings highly, for they are goods more precious than earthly treasures. Hence for a moment of pain, I deserve an eternity of joy; for a drop of bitterness I merit an ocean of unspeakable delights. Preserve me from the misfortune of ever being squeamish in my infirmities, from being addicted to complaining, or from lacking resignation. On the contrary, grant me the patience and equanimity befitting Thy servants, the true disciples of Jesus crucified.

II. Means Of Profiting By Sickness.

"The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to hell and bringeth back again" (1 Kings 2. 6). "It is Thou, O Lord, that hath power of life and death" (Wisdom 16. 13). Certain sick persons forgetting these principles, grow despondent, because instead of going back to the first cause of all things, they attribute their sufferings and trials to a number of partial and secondary causes, and lose sight of the truth that whatever happens here below, happens by the will or the most wise and holy directions of Him who seeks solely our salvation. "The Lord killeth and maketh alive."

Did not our Saviour redeem us by His sufferings? One day a crucifix was handed to a sick person with the suggestion, that she should pray for her recovery. "How can you wish me to come down from the cross," she replied, "when I behold my Redeemer attached to it? I would rather suffer with Him who suffered so much for me." By meditating  on the sufferings and love of Jesus in His Passion, we shall easily learn to be resigned in bodily infirmities, and far from wishing to be freed therefrom, we shall even feel happy to be able to unite them to the torments He endured, and thus to share in His merits. "If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice" (1 Pet. 4. 13).

The hope of heaven is another motive. The apostles preached "that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14. 21). The last illness, among others, as it was shown to St. Lidwina, completes the crown prepared for each one in the company of the elect. Wherefore if we suffer patiently with Jesus Christ in this vale of misery and tears, we shall be happy with Him in the abode of glory and delights. "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Tim. 2. 12).

O my God, how encouraging is this thought amid the annoyances, disgusts and privations resulting from our corporal infirmities! How capable is it to help us in mortifying our feelings, in stifling our complaints and our sadness, and thus to impart to us the strength of submitting with docility to the prescriptions of the physicians, and to show ourselves grateful to all who wait on us, or in any way assist us. Wherefore I am resolved, first, to speak of my physical ills only to those who have to attend to them; and secondly, often to offer them to Thee, O Lord, in union with the sufferings of Jesus, Mary  and the martyrs, and earnestly to implore Thee for perfect patience, that they may prove wholesome to my soul, to the faithful departed, and to poor sinners, and especially to those who are in their agony.