Life & Affection
3. The Message
When Anna Schäffer’s life was drawing to a close, as so many times previously she was visited by her neighbour, who asked Anna the anxious question: “What will we do, when you are no longer amongst us?” Anna answered her neighbour in beautiful words: “Just go to my tomb, I will understand you”. That means: I will help you. With these words Anna described her task, which she will continue to carry out from heaven: to help in all situations, to ask for help for all those who turn to her. Especially from heaven she has remained the great intercessor. If God presents us with Saints like Anna Schäffer and offers them to us as helping intercessors, then we are allowed to accept such help. With our trust we really glorify Him.
Already during her lifetime, Anna Schäffer wanted to help people in their daily needs and at the same time lead them nearer to God. She certainly wanted to proselytise and evangelise. We also are permitted to see in her a patron for new evangelisation. Man is healed fully only when he has found God. She proffers herself to help many in that area.
Through her life’s testimony she shows, that suffering and blows of fate, worries and hardships must not separate us from God. Exactly then He is near to us. When He calls us to follow Him, it does not mean that He will remove all difficulties from our path, but that He wants to overcome them together with us. Anna shows us, that we do not have to be afraid of the cross. When we love God, everything becomes easy.
The largest amount of time Anna spent on her sickbed, unable to move, unable to work or to earn money, she was a nursing case, humanly speaking she counted for nothing. But what blessing emanated from her – up to this very day. She is living proof, that the value of human life does not lie in accomplishments or achievements, in what we can afford, but rather that God has called everyone to life, that He loves everyone and has already prepared a place in His kingdom. This value is no lost even if man becomes fragile or old, if he becomes sick or weak. Just then, he can become a blessing for many when he is united with God.
