A Child With Cancer Says She Was Born To Be ‘God’s Helper’

Suffering is inevitable and often inexplicable, but Catholics know there is always redemption and grace.

The story of Madeline Guarraia’s (at far left, above, with her siblings and father) battle with childhood leukemia — symbolized by her beloved tiger — has touched hearts in her home town of East Lyme, her home state of Connecticut, and around the nation. The cancer has returned following a last-ditch bone-marrow transplant, and the town celebrated Christmas before Thanksgiving, concerned about how long Maddie would live.

But so far, she’s doing surprisingly well, as related by her mother on the Facebook page, “Mad About Madeline.”

I told the story of Madeline’s Christmas and more, at another home of mine, the Faith section of PJMedia.

A couple of days before, Amie remembered the previous year, when, while waiting on test results, Maddie was baptized in her hospital room (the name and exact religious affiliation of the cleric performing the baptism isn’t given, but he’s dressed like a Catholic priest).

Amie wrote:

Madeline has always, ALWAYS, since she could speak, had a close relationship with God. Which is quite interesting considering we will admit that we do not attend church regularly. Yet every time we went she would sit right next to her Bammy, stare at the cross, listen to EVERY word the priests said, and ask questions that no two or three year old should be able to come up with. And then she would spend days analyzing it all. Often times we would find her in her room looking at religious books and just staring at the pages. We knew there was always something more to Madeline than we would ever understand. She has brought faith to many who see her inexplicable connection first hand. And she said upon second diagnosis that she felt “like she was God’s helper.” It was a beautiful and simple baptism, full of many emotions. She was SO sick in this picture but was so happy about this special moment.

No human words can adequately explain why horrible diseases strike children or why they are made to suffer in so many ways. But it is a grace to everyone else if they see see a small person so filled with courage and hope in spite of their pain and fear.

All lives are precious, no matter how brief.