The Healing Journey

November 8, 2025

Our lives are a gift from God. We hear that so often it can sound trite, but only when we recognize the immensity of that gift will we begin to value not just some life, but all life.

For many years, Mary was a caregiver for family members and friends who were paralyzed, debilitated by cancer or suffering from Alzheimer’s. Caregiving is just about one of the most important, and least appreciated, jobs there is. The pay is poor, although the reward will be great in the next life.

One of the people in her care was a man who lived to 104. Every day he repeated the same stories, and she would force herself to listen attentively, as if she were hearing them for the first time.

Sometimes love requires patience, often times it does, particularly when family members and friends grow old and become a burden in society’s eyes.

Many, many years ago — 2200 to be exact — a Jewish rabbi named Ben Sira wrote about the importance of caring for the elderly, the sick and the dying. In the Book of Sirach, he said: “My child, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives. Even if his mind fails, be patient with him. Because you have all your faculties do not despise him, for kindness to a father (and mother) will not be forgotten and will be credited to you against your sins. In the day of your distress, it will be remembered in your favor. Like frost in fair weather, your sins will melt away.”
©J Pisani

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