Several months ago I took part in a pilgrimage to lords with thousands of knights and names of Malta from all around the world.

Typically this Malta chaplain was taught many things during that pilgrimage.

But first among the lessons God taught me was what it means to be sick.

I met an orthopedic surgeon in Lords, a newly minted knight of Malta, whose first contact

with our order came from being a Mawad himself.

A wildly successful and prosperous surgeon, he seemed to have life on a string,

and everything he told me was very good.

Until they noticed the spot on his brain scan,

a few weeks later the headaches would wake him up in the middle of the night.

And all of a sudden he went from being the doctor with the highest success rate in complex hip replacements

to an old man so weak that he couldn't stand up without the assistance of his wife.

He quickly found out he told me what it meant to be sick. It meant he was no longer in charge,

no longer driving the bus of his own life.

Someone else was in charge.

At first, it was just aggravated,

not having enough energy to do what he wanted to do,

but it progressed to needing help to get to the bathroom and sometimes just standing there

like an infant, peeing in his own pants.

And then he started to tremble so much that more food ended up in his lap than in his mouth.

What did it mean for him to be sick?

It meant he was no longer in control.

But you know, he told me one night as we went out for a walk, that is the greatest gift

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