fr-Chapter 43 - Illness, Healing and Renewal

The Origin and Meaning of Illness

1. When a person strays from the path of goodness by neglecting prayer and good works, he loses his moral strength and his spirituality and is exposed to temptation; and in his weakness, he allows sins to take hold, and these make the heart sick.

2. Yet I have come as a physician to the sick person's bedside and have bestowed upon him all My love and care. My light has been like fresh water upon his fever-scorched lips, and when he felt My balm upon his forehead, he said to Me: "Lord, only Your mercy can save me. I am very sick in my soul, and death will come to me very soon."

3. Yet I said to him: "You will not die, for I, who am Life, have come, and all that you have lost will be restored to you." (220, 39)

4. What merits can a sick person acquire who is incapable of any effort? His merits can be manifold and great if he knows how to arm himself with patience and resignation, if he is humble before the divine will, and if he is able to bless Me despite his pain. For his example will enlighten many hearts that dwell in darkness, that despair and give in to vice, or that think of death when a trial befalls them.

5. When these people encounter on their path an example of faith, humility, and hope that springs from a heart which also suffers greatly because it bears a very heavy cross, they will feel that their heart has been touched by a ray of light.

6. This is indeed the case: Since they were unable to hear the voice of their own spirit, they had to receive the light of the Spirit that another person conveyed to them through his example and his faith.

7. Do not give up, never declare yourselves defeated, do not bow to the weight of your sufferings. Always keep the burning lamp of your faith before your eyes. This faith and your love will save you. (132, 38-39)

Healing Through One's Own Strength

8. You ask Me to heal you; yet truly, I tell you, no one can be a better doctor than yourselves.

9. What good is it for Me to heal you and take away your pain if you do not cast off your faults, sins, vices, and imperfections? It is not pain that is the cause of your illnesses, but your sins. Behold, that is the source of pain! Therefore, fight against sin, separate yourselves from it, and you will be healed. Yet it is your task to do this. I only teach you and help you in this.

10. When you discover the cause of your suffering through your conscience and do everything in your power to fight it, you will fully feel the divine power that helps you triumph in the battle and gain your spiritual freedom.

11. How great will be your satisfaction when you feel that through your own merits you have managed to free yourselves from pain and have attained peace. Then you will say: "My Father, Your Word was my healing, Your teaching was my salvation." (8:54–57)

12. The true healing balm, people—the one that heals all illnesses—springs from love.

13. Love with the spirit, love with the heart and with the mind, and then you will have enough power not only to heal the illnesses of the body or to comfort in small human hardships, but to clarify the spiritual mysteries, the great fears of the soul, its disturbances, and pangs of conscience.

14. That balm resolves the great trials, kindles the light, eases the torment, and melts the chains that bind.

15. The person abandoned by science will return to health and life upon contact with this balm; the soul that has strayed will return at the loving word of the brother who calls it. (296, 60–63)

16. Put an end to pain! The life I have created is not filled with pain. Suffering arises from the disobedience and transgressions of the children of God. Pain is characteristic of the life that humans have created in their licentiousness.

17. Lift up your gaze and discover the beauty of My works. Prepare yourselves inwardly so that you may hear the divine concert; do not exclude yourselves from this feast. If you isolate yourselves—how then could you partake of this joy? You would live in sadness, torment, and sickness.

18. I want you to be harmonious notes in the universal concert, to understand that you have emerged from the Source of Life, to feel that My Light is in every soul. When will you reach full maturity, in which you can say to Me: "Father, subject my soul to Your Spirit, as well as my will and my life."

19. Recognize that you will not be able to say this as long as your senses are diseased and your soul is selfishly separated from the right path.

20. You live under the torment of illness or the fear of contracting it. Yet what is physical illness compared to a transgression of the soul? Nothing, if the soul is able to rise; for in My mercy you will always find help.

21. Just as blood flows through your veins and enlivens the whole body, so the power of God permeates your soul as a stream of life. There is no reason to be sick if you fulfill the law. Life is health, joy, happiness, harmony. When you are sick, you cannot be a repository of divine blessings.

22. You people with sick minds, hearts, or bodies, the Master says to you: Ask your soul, which is a child of the Almighty, to return to the right path, to heal your sufferings, and to assist you in your weaknesses. (134, 57–59)

The Renewal of Humanity

23. Vanity—a weakness that was already evident in the first human—will be combated through spiritualization. It is the struggle that has always existed between the soul and the "flesh." For while the soul, in its longing for the essence of the Father, is inclined toward the Eternal and the High, the "flesh" seeks only what satisfies and flatters it, even if it is to the detriment of the soul.

24. This struggle, which manifests in every human being, is a force that arises within man himself as a result of the influence the world exerts upon him. For the earthly nature craves all that corresponds to its nature.

25. If the soul is able to master that power and steer it in the right direction, it has brought both natures into harmony within its own being and will achieve its progress and ascent. If, on the other hand, it allows itself to be dominated by the power of the "flesh," it will find itself led astray toward evil; it will be a boat without a rudder in the midst of a storm. (230, 64)

26. You—unbelievers and doubters—cannot believe in a world of justice, nor can you imagine a life of love and virtue on your earth. In a word: You do not consider yourselves capable of anything good, nor do you have faith in yourselves.

27. I, however, believe in you; I know the seed that is within each of My children, for I created them, for I gave them life through My love.

28. I do indeed place my hope in humanity, believe in its salvation, in its becoming worthy, and in its ascent. For when I created him, I destined him to be a lord on Earth, where he was to create a place of love and peace, and I also decreed that his soul must grow strong in the struggle of life in order to attain, through merit, the right to live in the light of the Kingdom of Perfection, which is your eternal inheritance. (326, 44-46)