Sickness may be your angel in the way; Angels: Day 236

Last updated on: March 16, 2017 at 3:30 am by Pete Socks

Sickness may be your angel in the way; Angels: Day 236 2017-03-12T11:11:33-05:00 Pete Socks

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In the Bible’s most famous talking-animal story, Balaam is riding to curse Israel, but his ass sees an angel in the way, though Balaam doesn’t. Sickness, says St. Gregory the Great, may be your angel in the way, stopping you from sinning and turning your mind back to God.

Remind the sick to think about how great health of the heart is in bodily suffering, which brings the mind back to knowing itself, and renews the memory of infirmity, which health for the most part throws away—so that the stricken flesh may remind the spirit, which is carried out of itself into elation, what condition it is subject to.

This is rightly shown to Balaam—if he had only been willing to follow the voice of God obediently—in the very obstruction of his journey. For Balaam is on his way to do what he plans to do, but the animal under him thwarts him. The ass, stopped by the prohibition, sees an angel that the human mind does not see. (Num. 22:21-35.)

In just the same way, the flesh is slowed down by afflictions. Then, from the pain it endures, it shows the mind that controls it the God whom the mind did not see, so that it stands in the way of the eagerness of the spirit, which is trying to advance in this world as if it were going on a journey, until it makes known to it the invisible one who stands in its way. Peter said it very well: he “was rebuked for his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness” (2 Pet. 2:16). For a man really is rebuked as mad by a dumb beast of burden, when an elated mind is reminded by the afflicted flesh that it ought to keep the good of humility.

Remind the sick to think about how great a boon bodily affliction is. It both washes away committed sins and restrains those which might have been com- mitted, which inflicts on the troubled mind wounds of penitence derived from outward stripes. –St. Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule, 3.12

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

When I’m suffering from illnesses and trials, do I look for an angel in my way? Do I try to use that trial to examine my life and see whether I’m going somewhere God doesn’t want me to go?

CLOSING PRAYER

Holy angels, you are with us even in the trials of this life. Help me to have confidence in your presence and your mission. Help me to see each trial as an opportunity to draw closer to the Lord.

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A Year with the Angels

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Saint Gregory the Great

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