This past saturday we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. IN 1858 the blessed mother appeared to now St Bernadette and asked that a shrine be built on the spot of apparition. Today, thousands of pilgrims coming seeking healing through the water of the spring that flows not he spot.
Feb 11 is also the world day of sick. The pope ask us to pray for those who experience sickness in their life.
Sickness if a powerful experience of our lack of self-sufficiency. In our sickness we come to the deep realization that we need others. We cannot go it alone.
Sickness thus becomes a salutary occasion in which we can experience the attention of others and give our attention to others who are sick.
Jesus often times in his encounter with the sick tell them go your faith has saved you.
Salvation is a communal experience. We need the other and it is in that need salvation is experienced. Salvation is based in our need for the other.
Here lies the underlying power of sickness that awakens us to a deeper experience of grace.
In our sickness we realize we need the warmth of another. It is the nearness of the other that opens up the experience of true salvation.
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