At age 35 the wheelchair came into my lifeI rediscovered the value of living in the grace of God from the teachings of the Founder of Opus Dei.Years ago I saw a filmed encounter with the Founder of Opus Dei in the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, and I still remember the impact made on me by a question from a woman in a wheelchair. I felt totally identified with her because, like me, in that situation she wanted to know what people with disabilities could do for Opus Dei, apart from praying and offering up our limitations to God. I went through a very difficult time when I was young, not only from the family point of view but because I was facing a progressive muscular disease that year by year was steadily reducing my capabilities. I felt really scared of the medical diagnoses, which were often unobtainable and brought no answers. I kept up the hunt for possible cures, even abroad, until I got the final diagnosis: chronic polymyositis. At age 35 the wheelchair came into my life with all the drama that can well be imagined. Reading The Way every day was how I acquired fortitude and great self-discipline. When problems come up, I try to offer them to God in prayer, although I endure plenty of “deserts of faith” from which I am affectionately rescued by regular visits from the priest. The great challenge that I meet is to achieve the fine balance of “accepting” my situation, while working to improve whatever can be changed. St Josemaria teaches us to be steadfast in character but gentle in prayer, because that is how good sons or daughters treat their Father in Heaven and the Virgin Mary, our loving and nurturing Mother in whom, even in very difficult times, we always find relief and peace. In 1974, when the woman in the wheelchair asked what sick people could do for Opus Dei, the Founder of Opus Dei answered by encouraging her above all to accept her illness joyfully. I realize that in my case I don’t always manage to do that, but I am comforted by the memory of something else he told her then, which, after so many years, has taken on incalculable value for me. Almost at the end of what he was saying, St Josemaria told her: “I know you well enough to feel great affection for you and to know that I have in Argentina someone who will help me to be good.” This is what I have been asking St Josemaria for years, knowing that he listens to me: I ask him to help me to be better. . http://www.josemariaescriva.info/article/at-age-35-the-wheelchair-came-into-my-life |