P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
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INTENTION : |
That the terminally ill may be supported by their faith in God and the love of their brothers and sisters.
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When the Chilean saint Alberto Hurtado was given the news that he had terminal cancer at the age of 52, his reaction was jubilant. 'I've got the first prize in the lottery', he exclaimed immediately. He knew that the hour was coming in his life to go to the Father, to unite his life with God for ever, as he had always wanted.
At the funeral Mass for little Macarena, dead of cancer when she was five years old, her mother spoke, and said with a strong voice, completely at peace, and with a smile on her lips: 'I thank God for giving me this wonderful daughter for five years. Through her joy, her laughter, and her tenderness, during those years she showed us the beauty of God. She was the Lord's instrument to transform our lives and show us what is really important. The hard struggle against her illness, the long hours spent in the hospital, the solidarity of friends and relatives, allowed us to discover the most essential things in life.
Before this, we used to give too much importance to appearances, economic success, other people's opinions. Now we have learned to value real friendship, being together as a family, the enjoyment of each day and each moment as a wonderful, magic gift. Macarena has been the means to bring us close to God's gentle, inexhaustible love, which never abandoned us for a moment, which is interested in our lives. Now we feel ourselves stronger in faith and closer to the Lord than we were before, and we know that we are sheltered by his tenderness. Without being rich, thanks to his amazing providence we were able to pay for a very expensive treatment, and now we are not even in debt. In my own name and in my husband's, we give infinite thanks to the Lord for our daughter and for all that we have lived through with her during these years. And thank you to all of you.'
A 42-year-old mother died of cancer leaving five children aged between 7 and 17. The widower, her husband, spoke at the funeral Mass to give thanks, in a peaceful and sincere voice: 'I thank the Lord' (as he spoke he pointed to the crucifix at the end of the church) for the beautiful 19 years I had with Carolina, whom I loved with all my heart. I give thanks for all the moments that we shared, which were a wonderful gift to me. Her laugh, her wit, her self-denial and unselfish commitment to caring for our lovely children, have taught me how to live. I give thanks for her family, which took me in as one of them, and showed me how to live rooted in God. I give thanks in a special way for the five wonderful children whom we had, and whom she has now left in my care. The coming task is difficult, but she won't be able to get out of it, she'll have to do her share from heaven.
I am at peace because she passed on to me the enormous interior peace which she had in the final moments. I felt very strongly a complete surrender into the hands of God, before whom we are not standing as in a trial of strength, but as before someone who is accompanying us with great love. It's true that we always prayed that she would be cured, but in those days I also thought about Our Lady and Jesus himself, who accepted God's will, 'Thy will be done.'
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