Meditation for October 22, Peace Through the Gospel

There was in Jerusalem, along with the leper hospital kept by the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, another leper hospital kept by Moravian sisters, a Protestant religious order. The largest number of patients in the hospital were Turks, but there were also Jews. One day a Christian of about twenty-two came. The doctors believed they could cure him. Alas! The leprosy reappeared in a terrible form and he became blind. What was God doing then? Were not the Turks going to conclude the uselessness of faith?

Teach him Braille? His fingers were dead and had lost tactual sensitivity. What was to be done? The Sisters read him a little from St. Paul. He wanted to learn the texts by heart. From then on, he never grew weary. Apart from the others he meditated and prayed. And the Sisters, pointing to him, remarked: "Surrounded by the Turks who had on his account blasphemed Christ, he lives in such peace, he is so good, so cheerful, that he can tell them what none among us has been ever able to do, 'It is my faith in Jesus which makes my leprosy so sweet to me. It is with Him that I accept what Allah has chosen for me and I bless Him for it.'"

Often we might wish that God would take away our cross. He grants a greater grace; He gives us the strength to accept it. For certain sick persons, for example, who are cured at Lourdes, how many return home with their infirmity! But they return with a greater courage to support their trial, and this miracle of the moral and spiritual order is, if we understand it well, superior to the sudden restoration of health.

Am I sufficiently penetrated with the Gospel? Have I drunk deeply enough, and with a soul sufficiently alert, at the sources of faith, of peace, of hope?

Ah! if only I knew the sacred words, by heart, or rather, if only the holy words were the very heart of my heart! How essential it is for me to know my Gospel, to meditate these Good Tidings, to learn to read and retain!
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)