The smiling eyes of Javier Diaz Vega, a 35-year-old psychologist have many things to speak. He is a cancer patient and with that, he inspires many people with the hope that was born with his cancer growths. His Twitter account is full of hopeful texts jotted down by him. He writes:
I believe that what makes living through pain better is when we discover and embrace its meaning (or give meaning to it, of course). It involves many difficult moments and I believe that it’s God’s grace that sustains us, but suffering is the necessary condition for this testimony. What helps me to live through this pain is to discover that through my own experience other people can find hope, ask themselves questions, pray …
Cancer
The diagnosis of cancer was when his son had just turned 8 months old and he was enjoying his fatherhood immensely. This was the time when he got some very bad news: a diagnosis of lymphoma.
“It was a bucket of cold water since it was my second cancer in less than a year and it came with a broken arm, an operation, and a rehabilitation process. These were moments when all human security fails and plans disappear, leaving only each day as it comes and trusts in God and in the doctors. Thanks to that and after almost 7 months, my arm is almost recovered and the chemotherapy treatment is completed. The results halfway through the treatment were very good and now we’re waiting to confirm them with new tests.”
For the moment, Javier is experiencing an unpleasant non-medical side effect: he cannot hold his son in his arms. Being away from him, in the hospital, experiencing uncertainty … He relies on his loved ones, on the people around him, and on his Twitter community. He’s totally honest; he tells them about his suffering, that there are good days when he has the strength to face whatever comes and other much more complicated days.
His Twitter Community
“For me it has turned out to be a precious ‘cushion’ where I can feel accompanied in the good and bad things I experience,” says Javier about his followers. He knows about Twitter’s defects, about the dangers of that space where many people hide behind anonymity. He understands that some people are very negative, but he has found that it’s a platform where he can talk about things naturally as he lives them—and that his message is needed. What he receives in return enriches him.
“Feeling united in prayer with so many people who keep you in mind in so many places, who remember you and your family wherever they pray, whether it’s at their home, their parish, or even the Holy Land or Marian shrines around the world, makes you thank God a lot and obviously pray for them too, even if it’s like in these past months: in a hospital room. If I’m someone who brings them closer to God in one way or another, then great.”
The grace of God in his suffering is impressed by his answers. His answer, like his tweets, hit the bullseye:
In the cross. Perhaps in everyday life we “get used to it,” seeing it in every church, wearing it around our neck. But what about when it’s time to embrace a cross such as pain? There it’s not so easy; there’s resistance, rejection of that “scandal and foolishness” that St. Paul talks about. But he also says that it’s our glory, and that means that our pain makes us like Christ, identifies us with him. It’s a grace to recognize God in pain, because sometimes what pain pushes you to do is to look only at yourself, but when you discover (by that grace) that God himself is suffering with you, then you can embrace that cross. Even if at other times it seems to defeat you, you can get up because Christ is carrying it with you. As I was saying, it is a grace we must ask for constantly in prayer and in a constant sacramental life.
Hope
He is a companion of hope. He sees the Virgin Mary and finds every day when he prays the Rosary. “Living in hope means a way of going through life accepting the small and great sources of help that you have, which also give you reasons for not lowering your guard, for maintaining joy and not letting yourself be dragged down.”
Javier is inspiring people with his joviality. It is not so easy to spread hope and confidence during the worst time of life. Suffering is a Jewell for Javier. He may forbid from us. But his life and hope still would be there to inspire thousands of people even after centuries.