Because the monastery of
Lunden was founded from Lourdes, a place to which thousands of ill and suffering
people make pilgrimages each year with hope of healing or new strength to live
with their illness, we feel in a special way called to pray for those afflicted by illness.
The gospels describe in
many passages how Jesus had compassion with the sick and healed them.
The signs that the Kingdom of God has drawn near in Jesus, are precisely linked to this: "the blind see again, the lame walk, those suffering from virulent skin-diseases are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the good news is proclaimed to the poor" (Lk. 7:22). God does not want illness and suffering. And yet, none of us go through life without being confronted with these realities sooner or later, in one way or another. Why, is a mystery, just as it is a mystery why some are healed and others not. What we in all circumstances can do, is to carry the pain together with those who suffer, and lift it up to God.
The signs that the Kingdom of God has drawn near in Jesus, are precisely linked to this: "the blind see again, the lame walk, those suffering from virulent skin-diseases are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the good news is proclaimed to the poor" (Lk. 7:22). God does not want illness and suffering. And yet, none of us go through life without being confronted with these realities sooner or later, in one way or another. Why, is a mystery, just as it is a mystery why some are healed and others not. What we in all circumstances can do, is to carry the pain together with those who suffer, and lift it up to God.
We can think of the
woman Jesus met in the area around Tyros and Sidon (Mt. 15:21-28; Mk. 7:24-30), who tirelessly
interceded for her afflicted daughter - the woman who identified
with the little dogs under the table. As Dominicans - Domini canes -
"dogs of the Lord", we can maybe see in her
a refletion of our own vocation and be inspired to follow her example?