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The Way of Love for the Lord
Chapter 56. A woman in the agony of parting from her beloved husband due to tuberculosis. (September 18, 1982)
In this particular seminar, I came to serve as a leader of the group of young married women. One member who was wearing beautiful makeup was outwardly smiling, but it seemed that she was heavy-hearted and was suffering from a severe illness. During one of the break times, I called her over discreetly to pray for her. When I touched my hand over her chest to pray for her, I started coughing severely. After a while, I had difficulty in breathing due to the cough. Then I found her crying in my arms, and I came to realize through my suffering that she had a lung disease. After the prayer ended, she opened her mouth. “Could you keep a secret on what I am going to tell you?” “Of course, I am unworthy but came here as a messenger of the Lord. I have no one to tell your story to except for the Lord nor do I have any reason to tell it to anybody. So feel free to talk about it.” Then she told me about her life; she had married her husband with great difficulty because her husband’s family had opposed their marriage. But to her perplexity, she came to know right after the marriage that she had tuberculosis. They were at a loss for what to do. She feared that if her disease were known to her husband’s family, they would be forced to get a divorce. After having serious consideration, they concluded that they should stay away from each other to treat her tuberculosis. They wept over and over again due to their unexpected misfortune. They were told from the doctor that her disease could be cured if she would take her medication steadily. Her husband told his parents that he would go abroad and work there for a year to earn more money while still young. His parents tried to prevent him from going abroad saying that it would not be good for the couple who were just married to stay away from each other. He went ahead to go abroad so that his wife could have a chance to be cured of her disease. While she was staying away from her husband, she had to moan in internal agony in silence. She took medication diligently and consistently, and made her best endeavors to treat her disease before her husband came back. She waited night and day for him to return home. A year passed and he came home. To their disappointment, however, her disease was not gone. He had no other choice but to work abroad for one more year. Another year passed, but she still had tuberculosis. So her husband had to go abroad again. This time she felt like dying because her chronic disease was not gone. She further said, “I couldn’t tell this difficult situation of mine to anybody, not even to the priests or nuns. Because I spent my days moaning and agonizing over my disease, my body and mind have been covered all over with wounds. Now I don’t want to lead a life of sacrificing my husband in this way. But as I met you today, I have come to believe that I will be cured this time.” I also believed that she would be cured. It was because she was healed of her sick and wounded soul and thus she finally turned her hatred into love by cutting out the bud of hatred sprouting from her unforgiveness.
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