24 December 2025

Christmas is not a happy time for everyone. I was visiting in the hospital and an older woman said to me, ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ It’s a question which has a very straightforward answer, ‘You have done nothing to deserve this.’

Random things happen to us and, to be fair, very few people escape the dark night of the soul. Jesus makes this clear. His friends asked him, ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ They thought that his impediment must have been the result of something he or his parents had done.

Jesus makes an interesting reply. ‘Neither this man nor his parents  sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.’  This was a prelude to a healing miracle. Jesus made mud with his saliva and the earth, spread it on the blind man’s eyes and healed him.

But not everyone is healed. My friend’s lament, ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ was possibly the result of an inner realisation that the medics were not able to find a cure and this may mark the end of her life. But I move along too quickly.

For no sooner had my friend asked the question but she began to penetrate the mystery. She went on to tell me about a family whom she knew. In that family, there was not one but two people who were both suffering from cancer. ‘They are worse off than me.’ she said.

Immediately, she was able to reframe her situation in the light of another’s predicament which was worse than hers.  In this she showed humility, insight and grace. Aren’t these the works of God which were manifest in her all-encompassing suffering?