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I remember once reading an unusual article in a magazine. The editor had interviewed a multitude of people asking : "Why are you living ?" I was struck by a reply from an eleven-year-old who was ill with cancer.
"Why are we living ? That is an extremely tough question. I think that God brought us into this world each for a distinctly different reason. If God has given you a good voice, then maybe he wanted you to be a singer. If he made you seven foot tall then maybe he wanted you to play with the Lakers or Celtics. When a young friend of mine died of cancer, I asked my mummy: "If God had intended Kim to die when she was still six years old, why did he bring her into the world ?" But mummy replied that even though Kim was only six years old when she died, she had changed the life of people around her. Maybe her brother or cousin would be drawn into the world of medicine and science through her death in an endeavour to alleviate the suffering of cancer victims.
Just like me ! Often I also wonder why God had chosen me and had permitted cancer to strike me. Maybe he chose me so that when I grow up I will become a doctor and care for cancer patients. So if someone would say : `Dr Jim I am so terrified !` ...or `..`You don't know what it means ! you do not know how ashamed I am to be the only kid in school who's bald,`...then I would be able to tell them: Oh, no?! Let me tell you something. I too had cancer once when I was young and look at me now, I've got hair again !`"
How true what the Domenican Meister Eckhart said whilst reflecting: "When you do not understand any more, when you do not desire any more, darkness overcomes you.......and there God shines !"
P Pius Sammut
L-Istejjer tal-Patri
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