The Blessing of Illness – Fr. Pimen

Although we avoid illness, it can be a great blessing – but we must know how to use it as God teaches us. Listen to Father Pimen who gives us a brief analysis on this topic on the occasion of a medical problem he went through.

Enjoy!

Look dear ones, we meet again. CHRIST IS RISEN! You see me with the third leg, my leg has been hurting for a few days. So far I haven’t used a cane, but just yesterday one of the fathers, seeing me struggling to climb the stairs, told me that it would be useful to me. I decided to obey, to humble myself too, so I took the cane and saw how useful it is, it helps me a lot.

Today, at the table, a monk told me that I talked about many topics, but I never talked about illness, so, since my leg still hurts, I decided to approach this subject. I haven’t prepared myself on this subject, but maybe the Mother of God will put something in my mind, so that [what I will say] shall be for the benefit of all of us.

What is illness? Whom God loves, He reproves. He wants to save us, and sometimes He sees that the dust settled on us, the rust, in certain places. And He gives us a light slap, a pain, an illness, to show us that He loves us and to give us an extra crown. If we say: “Thank You, Lord, glory to You, Lord! You were merciful, I deserved even worse” – we receive a crown. If we grumble, we cannot receive our reward, and we still have to carry the illness and we don’t collect any crowns. Because of this, any illness, any pain, let us welcome it with love and thank God.

For those who are suffering, the Holy Fathers say, it is enough to thank God and that takes the place of the canon and prayer and everything. When they say all day long: “Glory to You, Lord, thank You, Lord, both for the good things You have given me before and for the more painful ones you gave me, also out of love!”

I remember Venerable Paisios the Athonite, who had cancer with metastasis, never prayed that God would take away his disease. Many said to him: “Father, you pray for so many people, many are healed through your prayer, why don’t you pray for yourself too?” – “Never such a thing! I had years when I prayed that God would give me the disease, so that I too would suffer as He suffered for us. God listens differently to a sick man who does not pray for himself to be healed, but prays for others. It is my crown with which I go to Christ.” And so he died in sickness, in suffering. Many would say: “God punished him because he had the illness.” No, illness is never a punishment. Illness equals crowning, but as I said, “Glory to You Lord, thank you for everything!”

Venerable Porphyrios, of whom I have spoken several times, is the Saint in whom God placed all the gifts. There are saints who each had a gift, but Venerable Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia was given them all by God. But do you know that in his last years he was blind after an operation gone wrong?! This is what God allowed. And others as well, he had many illnesses. And with all this suffering, he prayed for people, advised them and helped them. He was sick, blind, could not get out of bed, and often appeared to certain people in certain places, helping and healing them, without moving from his bed. The healed one would come and say, “Two days ago Father [Porphyrios] visited me.” And the nun would tell him, “But he didn’t come out of the cell, look, he’s in bed, sick.” Or he answered the phone without picking up the receiver. He couldn’t even get out of bed. The gifts he had received from God, to be able to help others… All these people had illnesses.

Venerable Jacob Tsalikis, who had been working miracles since he was 7 years old, also had so many ilnesses… He didn’t want to go to the hospital, being shy, he didn’t want to undress in front of the doctors. In the end, he came to the conclusion that God allowed it so that he may humble himself, because he had to go, be cut open, and not only the doctors saw him, but the assistants too. God wants us to be humble. And they were people with a saintly life.

So, in sickness we must glorify God. Maybe some have serious illnesses, paralysis; let everyone give glory to God! I remember a book, which I translated from Greek, years ago, it’s called: “A Wounded Angel” – the life of an orphan girl, who fell ill with leprosy. There was an island close to Crete, “Leper Island.” All those who had leprosy were taken there so that others would not get infected. This girl, 20 years old, was taken there. On the island it was known that in a month or a year, sooner or later, everyone would die, the flesh would fall off of them from the leprosy.

When she got there, she was at the beginning of her leprosy, she had a mole on her face, which was starting to expand (that’s how leprosy was, it started somewhere). But when she saw so much despair on that island, everyone was sad, she said, “This will not do.” She had great faith in God, she began to go through their poor huts, to ventilate them, to whitewash them, to help them, to bring them what was useful to them, to raise their morale. They were desperate people, their flesh was falling off them, and they looked at it as something strange. But every day doing this, helping, she began to give them a little hope. A 20 year old girl. Slowly, she gathered two other girls in this spirit, and everyday she would run by all the huts and help. Who else was helping them?

Somewhere on another island, there was a child, likewise her age or a little older, who was paralyzed from the middle down. She was in a wheelchair, could not get around. Finding out about all the pain on the island of lepers, she tried to find out the names of those who were on the island. And she, paralyzed as she was, began to write to every person on that forgotten island. She wrote to them: “My dear, ….do not lose courage, I am with you.” She made drawings for them, put flower petals on them. And so, the people of the island woke up with these letters. For them, this meant a lot, someone from the “other world” was thinking of them and wrote them a letter, they, who had been forgotten for years. For them it was like a resurrection from the dead!

This child gathered several little girls around her, whom she sent around the village to ask the locals to help with whatever each one could. In this way, she sent different things to the island of lepers. At the same time, she managed to collect several chickens, and when a ship left for the island of lepers, she also sent these chickens that were distributed throughout the island. Think of those abandoned people, when in the morning the rooster crowed at their house, which they had never heard there before. Those chickens made them an egg. People started to have a responsibility. They had had nothing left except their illness. But from then on, they had chickens, which they had to feed to make eggs. The roosters sang to them in the morning, they all woke up, even if they didn’t have much to do, but they started sweeping, doing something, and so they forgot about the disease.

And all this started from a paralyzed little girl, who did not sit and cry out of pity, but tried to help others who she thought were much worse than her. She no longer considered her illness a problem because she understood that God had left her hands so that she could write and a clear head so that she could think and she did not waste time: she always had a few ten-year-old girls who came and were happy to be of use too, they gathered around her and she sent them: “Go there, there, get that ready, get some more from there!” She was always preparing these things with joy, do you understand? Even in illness we can be of help to others!

We have an example in Romania: Mihai Neșu. A great footballer, paralyzed, can barely move a hand, he is in a wheelchair. This man managed to make an entire association, a building, with a church, to help people in suffering. So, many times when man reaches suffering, if he puts his hope in God, and thanks Him, He enlightens him and he begins to look for ways to help others.

A priest from Cluj had come here, who told me that he had a kind of home and school for children with disabilities, which he founded after a child with problems was born in his family, and trying to help his child, he decided that he had to do something for the other children as well. He decided to make a house out of the little he had to help others. Do you see how God works? Sometimes a sick child can be a blessing because other children are helped.

God doesn’t make mistakes, do you understand? God is love! If he allows an illness, he knows that a benefit will come out of that illness. Never grumble in illness! Let us thank God, because then that illness is a crowning and He takes care, little by little, to comfort us, and if we do not get rid of it, He will give us ways to deal with it easily, to be busy in something else, to do good.

Dear ones, my leg hurts, but I don’t pay attention, I keep coming out here, people still come around, I talk to them until I can’t anymore, because I can’t stand on it, I can barely step, I use the cane for support. I never asked the Mother of God to take away my pain, to help me solve this. If the Mother of God allowed it, it means that it is useful to me. It can hurt even worse, no problem! Thank you, Mother of God, because it is useful to me! It barely regulates me a bit. All my life I was active, I built, I made, I took care of flowers. Now I can’t do anything. I used to run around, but now I move in slow motion. I step carefully, with this foot, with the whole foot. I can neither on the toe, nor on the heel; on the entire foot, lightly, to have a balance and I lean on the cane. And then I have to go in slow motion. As soon as I get out of the rhythm, my foot tells me: “This is not the rhythm, you have to go calmly, slowly, in the rhythm in which you can pray!” God knows! Maybe I was running too much, there were many people to talk to, the rhythm was a bit accelerated and then, the Mother of God (because she is the Mistress) said: “Slow down [so you can pray]. Whether you want to or not, I’ll adjust you because your foot won’t let you [run]!” That’s how it became a blessing for me.

So, let us thank God, let us thank the Mother of God, let us enjoy everything. Look at the beautiful flower I have here! It’s called the Pascha Flower or the Bride’s Flower. Always for the Resurrection it is in bloom. It is a beautiful bush, full of flowers. It hangs down to the bottom, it’s a joy, right in the courtyard in front of the guesthouse. God makes us happy all the time: beautiful flowers, birds that sing beautifully, good people, good Christians come here all the time, I see them coming with love. We don’t manage, because many come, to have time for everyone, but when they step into the garden of the Mother of God, She doesn’t let them leave empty-handed: for a prayer in which they participate in here, she helps them with something, or because they worship the miracle-working icons of the Mother of God, or if we manage  – those of us who are around here – to tell them a word of strength, all of this together makes a bit of a mark.

When he leaves Athos, the man feels a little changed. The air seems to be purer; man feels that his lungs are fuller, his heart a little more compassionate, more full of love, more changed. They have the thought to go and change something in their lives. Always, in those who come to Athos, a small change occurs within. Of course, [not] if someone comes with other interests, and sees only the bad things they are looking for, that’s his business. But most people leave with a small benefit, because they come with love.

More and more are coming. I was even hearing here, someone said that he made a reservation at a hotel in Ouranoupoli and they asked him at the hotel what was happening with the Romanians, it was like they all moved here. In Ouranoupoli, every day, all the hotels are full, and think, there is no beach now. They all enter Athos. Every day there are hundreds of Romanians who enter Athos. I don’t know where this spark came from. Maybe even during the pandemic, people woke up a little, maybe something moved them inside and they seek to get closer to God, they seek the help of the Mother of God by coming to Her garden or to thank Her for how much She helped them.

My dears, see, I have talked to you a little about illnesses too, about how to receive them. Let’s have courage, because nothing happens by chance in our lives. Every suffering, every pain is part of the Cross. If it is part of the Cross, it means that it is our salvation. Let’s welcome them, let’s thank God and the Mother of God, because then we manage to overcome them easily!

May the Mother of God help us! May God help us! CHRIST IS RISEN!

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