Alexia Gonzalez barros
It began with pain in the neck and arms. The persistent pain led to more detailed medical examinations. Finally, the result came. It was a malignant tumour. Alexia Gonzalez was only thirteen years old at the time. Everyone who knew her was filled with sorrow that such a serious illness had befallen a young girl at such a tender age. She too was distressed at first. Therefore, she prayed in this way: “I want and pray to be cured of this illness. But if it is not your will that I be cured, let your will be done.” It was unconditional surrender, complete submission to the will of God. That is what Alexia Gonzalez did. How did a thirteen-year-old girl attain such spiritual maturity? Was it her faith in God?
Alexia was born on 7 March 1971 in Madrid, Spain, into a devout Catholic family with a deep faith in God. Her parents, Francisco and Moncha, were closely associated with the Opus Dei movement. Alexia was the youngest of their seven children. She grew up with a devotion to her guardian angel. She named her guardian angel Hugo. Alexia received her First Holy Communion at the age of eight, and that same year she had the opportunity to witness an unforgettable moment. It was when she visited the Vatican with her parents and received a blessing from Pope John Paul II during the general audience. The joy and memory of seeing the Pope in person and receiving his blessing remained with her until her death. Her life as an adolescent was passing peacefully and calmly when illness entered her life in the form of pain. The tumour was in her spinal cord. She had to undergo four operations within a few months. As a result, she became paralysed. She lived for only ten months after the diagnosis. But those ten months were filled with severe pain and suffering. Yet throughout this period, she lived with joy and faith. Even amid her pain, Alexia firmly believed that she was in the hands of God. That is why she prayed: “Jesus, I want to get well. But if you do not want it, neither do I.” She viewed everything that happened to her with faith. Therefore, many things that appeared to others as suffering did not seem to her to be suffering.
Alexia died in 1985 at the University of Navarra Clinic in Pamplona, Spain, at just fourteen years of age. Her life of suffering and spirituality inspired many people from that time onwards. The process for her canonisation began in the Archdiocese of Madrid in 1993. On 5 July 2018, Pope Francis declared Alexia Venerable. If we can receive even the ordinary events of daily life with gratitude from the hands of God, our lives will indeed be sanctified. How long we have lived is not the most important thing. Rather, if we are able to live according to the will of God throughout the time given to us, our lives will become blessed.
Vinayak Nirmal
