The Two Disabled Children

My pastoral visits to different areas always reveal to me some special cases which, although they move me, ultimately teach me.

So, every week I visit various parishes in remote areas to observe firsthand the efforts of our priests and, accordingly, to help not only with advice and planning but also practically in the construction of churches, clinics, schools, orphanages, etc., as well as with the food program, i.e., a plate of food for the destitute and forgotten orphaned children we encounter everywhere.

The journey, though tiring, did not deter me. I always prioritize this mission. After the message was conveyed to both the priest and the parishioners for close cooperation and their contribution to development among the villagers, especially on the issue of charity, the priest invited me to go and pray for two sick people.

A moving encounter

In a few minutes, we reached our destination. We walked through the lush vegetation along a path. We arrived and were greeted by a middle-aged lady.

She was happy to see us, and especially that we would see her two sick sons. What a surprise and what pain, however, when we realized the condition in which both sick boys were… They were two boys who had been paralyzed since birth, and not only that. They did not understand, did not speak, and felt neither their legs nor their arms.

I made the sign of the cross and began with the “Blessed is our God.” After reading the relevant prayers with the holy oil I always carry for special cases, I anointed all their body parts with the help of their mother. For the healing of soul and body! It was not easy.

The Mother’s Example

But I admired the mother. One was forty and the other twenty-five. Without a father, of course! What a cross! I thought. So much love, so much sacrifice, so much self-denial, I thought. I looked again and again at how this woman, alone, could offer her services day and night to these creatures of God all these years, without complaint, without weariness, silently and with such devotion.

And again, I remembered how we, the supposedly faithful and Christians, complain and do not consider how many people like us carry a permanent and unbearable burden in their lives, that of the cross.

How instructive is this topic that gives us an invitation; it does not impose it on us, and that is why we have the freedom to choose whether we want to carry this cross, which will become a revelation for us that we did not do what we thought, but what God Himself wanted. Our submission to God’s will was so positive and fruitful that in the end, we would have the great honor and blessing to enjoy the blessings of His heavenly Kingdom.

With all this, we will better recognize and understand the value of our life and existence through the evangelical virtues of purity, humility, selflessness, and meekness.

The Lesson of Love

This mother with her two disabled children sits there and offers her humble service silently and without complaint, selflessly and without seeking recognition, inspired by the same love that Christ Himself offered to every person regardless of color, race, language, or origin.

Thus, her action unreservedly builds up all the richness of her soul with the heavenly transfusions of God’s grace. Through her spiritual kindness and her pure and unadvertised devotion, that virtue of love and charity unfolds, for which God, in His ultimate humility and compassion, will reward her, since she has truly and practically applied the evangelical “Let all that you do be done in love.”