Saturday, June 4, 2016

Met Georges Khodr on Health and Illness

Arabic original here.


That We Live

What I do render to the Lord, for all his benefits to me? A question of the Prophet David, to which he responds: "I will take up the cup of salvation." That is, I do not give the Lord anything, I return to Him what I have received. I think that this is the faith, that we believe that the Lord is everything, if He gives and if He takes.

It is for the Lord to give and for the Lord to take and in both cases He is our point of return. We give thanks when He gives and when He takes, He has His wisdom and in both cases He is the one who loves. He does not tell you why He takes and sometimes He does not tell you why He gives. If you become very attached to Him, you will understand in most cases, and if you come to be profound in understanding Him, you will know why He gave to you and why He stripped away from you. That is, your attitude towards Him is always to be thankful.

Then what does it mean for Him to take something like money or health? If you are strong in faith, you will understand in most cases. If you lose something of yours, including your health, do not think that the Lord was lying in wait for you, because God does not punish anyone. The loss of health sometimes indicates God's love. Do not be concerned with your health to an unimaginable degree. Take care of it with medicine, but it comes and goes. Its loss is not a punishment. God arranges your affairs in health and in sickness. Sometimes He gives you understanding of your situation and sometimes He permits you to be ignorant of your situation. You do not impose upon Him giving you health as a condition for you to love Him. He has the right to deal with you because He has wisdom. But do not accept your illness, treat it. Do not say fatuously that God made you sick. He does not harm anyone!

You beg for His grace. He gives it as benefits you. Do not impose anything on Him. Take care of your health, because this is something from Him. Each of us gets sick and each of us dies. Sickness is not the exception. Taking care of your health is a spiritual duty. Our guiding light in this is that the New Testament led us to reveal a mystery in the Church, the healing of the sick. Therefore, if someone leaves himself in sickness and does not treat it, he commits a sin. It would be irresponsible for us to say that God sent me this illness. God is not the cause of illness. He has his ways with this universe, with our bodies and what enters them. God only heals. And along this way, we die.

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