Elder Paisios Svyatogorets said that a girl whose mother was sick with cancer came to him and asked: “Pray for my mother so that she will recover!”
He said to her:
— Well, I will pray that your mother, whom you love so much, will get well, that God will take this disease away from her, but give it to you, that you will bear this cross instead of your mother.
The girl was scared:
— Father, what are you saying? I asked you to pray for my mother to get well!
— Well, yes, she’ll get well, but God give it to you, it’s better that you can handle it, you’re still young.
— No, Father! Nope! May my mother recover and let no one get sick in her place!
— But, my child, how can we show our love? At least your own little sympathy for another person’s pain?
— No, no!
— Okay, look, here’s what we’re gonna do: let your mother get well, and you and I share her cancer. You have half and I have half.
Father, please listen to me! Can I pray that my mother will be fully healed and that we will all be well?
— But don’t you want to learn to love a little bit?
— But I love her already! I’m dying for her!
— How do you die for her? Okay, you get a little cancer, and I’ll take most of it. And your mother will be cured!
“This conversation was a kind of test,” said Elder Paisios, “to see to what extent her love extends.” Turns out there’s no love.
At the end of the conversation, the girl panicked: “All right, Father, enough!” Thank you very much. I asked you if you could cure my mother, otherwise goodbye!
We all want to get well, but the question is, if Christ asks me now, “Do you feel sorry for them?” Well done! Do you love them? Well done! So, do you agree to say, “My God, for them I am willing to experience this pain, let them be healed” and suffer by taking their pain on myself? Christ did just that.
Archimandrite Andrei (Conanos)
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