Why me Lord ?
The book “Finding the Heart of Jesus in Sickness and Infirmity” by Ronald Leinen, states how we can go through life hearing about the catastrophes that happen to other people and be little affected personally.
It may not occur to our mind that the same catastrophes can happen to us and we start praying for them to get better and we ask them to be strong for them to overcome the situation..
Unfortunately the same thing happens to us even at the highest level and when they do happen, an early reaction may well be, “why me, Lord?” We start looking to what we are going to lose that we have worked so hard to build up. Like, I am losing my company, I have just finished my college, I am not yet married, or my kids are going to be orphans, my wife/husband is going to be a young widower, I am very young for this condition, I‘ll be buried, and maybe forgotten, there is no family to remember me, what I am going to do? Why are you letting this happen to me? We ask a lot to know why that happens to us, we wish deeply it bypasses our paths.
Of course, we are not being singled out. Sickness and infirmity are common lot of humankind, together with their opposites: health and vigor. The condition of a particular person on a particular day may be one or the other.
God calls each of us to begin each day with abandonment to the divine will. If we trust in God, we are not alone. Curiously, sickness can be more conducive than health to our being able to begin the day with a prayer of trust. Whether we are sick or healthy, we gain most by seeing everything in our lives from a spiritual perspective. In sickness, we can gain a deeper faith; in health, we can gain a deeper spirit of thanksgiving. That does not mean that we cannot thank God for his gifts when we are sick. In that circumstance, however, thanksgiving rests entirely on our faith.
The goodness of God does not come and go with our physical or mental condition. It does not come and go with our earthly gains or losses. We can even have peace in the midst of difficulties if we have faith and humility. Humility is important because it enables us to see that our lives are entirely in the providential care of God and that we are all peers in the human condition.
“Why me Lord?” comes from a temporary forgetting that we are all equally in need of divine help to reach our ultimate goal, which is beyond all earthly suffering. Along the way, we may be sick or infirm. Our worth depends not upon our being healthy but from the fact that we are all children of God destined for union with God in Jesus.
The heart of Jesus understands the pain of those who call out in their distress. He identifies with each and every one of us. He himself experienced the pain of the human condition. Jesus is most near when you call out, “Why me, Lord?” He then invites us to abandon ourselves into his care, to receive the peace that only he can bestow.
Remember Psalms 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, and he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever, Amen.
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