IF SYMPTOMS PERSIST
By DR. JOSE PUJALTE JR.
Dr. Jose Pujalte Jr.
(Fr. Greg Gaston was my classmate at the UP College of Medicine and writes today
from Rome.)
As human beings, we desire to be always healthy and lead normal lives. But sickness is also a daily experience – either personally, or seeing family members’ or friends’ pains, that eventually become our own as well.As we face illness daily, we attempt to understand it, consciously or unconsciously. From a physical level, we could say that it is a lack of health. This is like partial darkness being the partial lack of light. We all lack a bit of health, so we are all a bit sick. Total darkness is the total lack of light, while a total lack of health means death.
The human person is not only a body, but body and spirit. What is sick (or rather, WHO is sick) is the person, not just the body. This is why St. Paul says that if one part of the body suffers, every part suffers with it (1Cor 12:26). It is the whole person who suffers, in the person’s whole body and soul.
And here we can catch a glimpse of a certain mystery: the body’s weakness often becomes an instrument for the person’s strength. The person is strengthened as he or she becomes more determined not to be held back by some disease. If the illness is not debilitating, we find ways to compensate and continue with our day-to-day activities. We appreciate for example, how some blind persons excel in singing, or how those with no arms paint using their feet. In many cases, family members have been brought closer together as they struggle to care for a sick parent or sibling.
While we realistically accept the frailty of the human condition, our desire for healing continues. For Christians, we remember that “Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness” (Mt 9:35). When a man prayed to Jesus to cure his son, Jesus replied, “Everything is possible to one who has faith” (Mk 9:23).
God then wants us to be healthy. But since our human nature is not perfect, God also allows illness. Our faith leads us to turn to God with a fervent prayer for healing, and he answers in different ways. But what if our prayers are seemingly left unheard? Perhaps God wants us to persevere and pray more. Or perhaps he is giving us some time to discover meaning in our suffering. Or he might have some other plans of healing for us, way beyond our imagination, and that he will show in his time.
When Jesus first came into the world, he suffered the cold of winter, and the coldness of the hearts of those who did not want to receive him. It was a preview of the suffering he would endure on the Cross. May we discover how to unite ourselves with the Lord’s suffering and find more meaning from our own. This way our road to healing begins –to bodily healing if it is God’s will, and yes, always, to healing in our spirit, and perhaps in our families and in our communities.
To listen to the Advent webinar entitled ‘Faith and Prayer in Illness; Road to Healing’ by Fr Gaston, go to FB.com/upmedwebinars. To pledge donations to the Pontificio Collegio Filippino, home in Rome for Filipino diocesan priests taking up postgraduate studies, please email us at [email protected] .
Fr. Gregory Ramon D. GASTON
Rector, Pontificio Collegio Filippino, Rome