How many times have you run into someone and, in response to a question like, “it’s been a while, how are you?,” you get a story of health problems for that friend? And how often does that conversation end with their request that you keep them in their prayers?

As a priest, and especially since being consecrated bishop, I have been part of this scene time after time.

Regularly, when I am visiting a parish and saying hello to people after Mass, someone will quietly sidle up and talk about their problem, or a coming surgery or treatment, and then ask for a prayer and a blessing.

Not infrequently, I get letters or emails from former parishes or former parishioners mentioning their health issues or those of someone we both knew. They always end with that request for prayers.

I wonder if we are sufficiently grateful to God for the progress in health care that has developed over the centuries and that we now take for granted?

What once was an illness for which there was little or no hope, humanly speaking, may now have become a routine matter to be cured or controlled by various different medical possibilities. (I often marvel at the dental care that is available today, and cringe to think of what a toothache must have meant centuries ago.)

Still, illness and injury are a part of our human and spiritual life. In faith, we are all called to join in Christ’s sufferings on the cross. And as members of Christ’s body, the Church, joined with him always, we all bear the joy and the burden of “making up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ” (Col 1:24.

For many of us, the burden of illness, of injury, or even the challenges of aging will be a significant part of our sharing in Christ’s suffering.

Like so many things in this life, we can approach illness from a strictly earthly standpoint, or we can lift up our eyes and make it a part of our spiritual life.

In the early months of my first year of serving as a parish priest years ago, I made regular hospital visits. I soon met Mary, unmarried and dying slowly of cancer. She was obviously suffering but she did so with great dignity and, at times, with no small amount of humor.

I asked her once how she coped with what she was going through. She responded simply, “I am offering up all of my sufferings for the Church.” In that one sentence is a lesson that I have never forgotten.

Pain and suffering are a part of our human and spiritual condition. Like the suffering of Christ on the cross, we accept that our bodily weaknesses and afflictions are both a mystery and a part of God’s love. That doesn’t lessen the pain, of course. But it gives us strength and courage to keep moving forward.

Such a vision of illness also gives us great motivation to fulfill those requests for prayers that we so often receive from the sick. We always trust that our prayers are not in vain, not without merit.

Yes, God knows what we want before we ask, but by His will, our prayers have great value, both for us and for the person we are praying for. We should never allow our promise to pray for others to be an empty phrase.

And let’s also remember in our prayers and be grateful for all of those who dedicate themselves to the care of the sick. Nurses, doctors, therapists, technicians … all of you merit our thanks and remembrance before the loving Father for the way that you ease and support our sufferings as we walk the Way of the Cross with Christ.