|
Pope Benedict XVI- Homilies |
"God,
in Fact, Wishes to Heal the Whole Man"
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick
H.H. Benedict XVI
February 11, 2010
Mass celebrated at
St. Peter's Basilica. Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the
18th World Day of the Sick and the 25th anniversary of the
foundation of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry.
The relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Lourdes,
were present at the Mass.
* * *
Lord Cardinals,
Venerated Brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Gospels, in the synthetic descriptions of the brief but intense
public life of Jesus, attest that he proclaimed the Word and healed
the sick, sign par excellence of the closeness of the Kingdom of
God. For example, Matthew writes: "And he went about all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom
and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people"
(Matthew 4:23; cf 9:35). The Church, which has been entrusted with
the task of prolonging the mission of Christ in space and time,
cannot neglect these two essential works: evangelization and care of
the sick in body and spirit. God, in fact, wishes to heal the whole
man, and in the Gospel the healing of the body is a sign of a more
profound healing, which is the remission of sins (cf Mark 2:1-12).
Hence, it is not surprising that Mary, Mother and model of the
Church, is invoked and venerated as "salus infirmorum," "health of
the sick." As first and perfect disciple of her Son, she has always
shown, accompanying the journey of the Church, special solicitude
for the suffering. Testimony of this is given by the thousands of
people who go to Marian shrines to invoke the Mother of Christ, and
find strength and relief. The Gospel narrative of the Visitation
(cf. Luke 1:39-56) shows us how the Virgin, after the evangelical
announcement, did not keep to herself the gift received, but left
immediately to go to help her elderly cousin Elizabeth, who for six
months had been carrying John in her womb. In the support given by
Mary to this relative who was, at an advanced age, living a delicate
situation such as pregnancy, we see prefigured the whole action of
the Church in support of life in need of care.
The Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, instituted 25 years
ago by the Venerable John Paul II, is undoubtedly a privileged
expression of this solicitude. My thought goes with gratitude to
Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, first president of the dicastery and
ever impassioned leader in this realm of ecclesial activity; as also
to Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, who until a few months ago gave
continuity and growth to this service. With heartfelt cordiality I
address to the present president, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, who
has assumed this significant and important legacy, my greetings,
which I extend to all the officials and staff who in this quarter of
a century have collaborated laudably in this office of the Holy See.
In addition, I wish to greet the associations and organizations that
take care of the organization of the Day of the Sick, in particular
UNITALSI and the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi.
The most affectionate welcome goes naturally to you, dear sick
people. Thank you for coming and above all for your prayer, enriched
with the offer of your toil and sufferings. And my greeting goes
also to the sick and volunteers joining us today from Lourdes,
Fatima, Czestochowa and from other Marian shrines, and to all those
following us on radio and television, especially from clinics or
from their homes. May the Lord God, who constantly watches over his
children, give everyone relief and consolation.
Today's Liturgy of the Word presents two main themes: the first is
of a Marian character, and it unites the Gospel and the first
reading, taken from the last chapter of the Book of Isaiah, as well
as the Responsorial Psalm, taken from Judith's canticle of praise.
The other theme, which we find in the passage of the Letter of
James, is of the prayer of the Church for the sick and, in
particular, of the sacrament reserved for them. In the memorial of
the apparitions of Lourdes, a place chosen by Mary to manifest her
maternal solicitude for the sick, the liturgy appropriately makes
the Magnificat resonate, the canticle of the Virgin who exalts the
wonders of God in the history of salvation: the humble and the
indigent, as all those who fear God, experience his mercy, [he] who
reverses earthly fortunes and thus demonstrates the holiness of the
Creator and Redeemer. The Magnificat is not the canticle of those on
whom fortune smiles, who always "prosper"; rather it is the
thanksgiving of those who know the tragedies of life, but trust the
redeeming work of God. It is a song that expresses the tested faith
of generations of men and women who have placed their hope in God
and have committed themselves personally, like Mary, to being of
help to brothers in need. In the Magnificat we hear the voice of so
many men and women saints of charity, I am thinking in particular of
those who consumed their lives among the sick and suffering, such as
Camillus of Lellis and John of God, Damien de Veuster and Benito
Menni. Whoever spends a long time near persons who suffer, knows
anguish and tears, but also the miracle of joy, fruit of love.
The maternity of the Church is a reflection of the solicitous love
of God, of which the prophet Isaiah speaks: "As one whom his mother
comforts, / so I will comfort you; / you shall be comforted in
Jerusalem" (Isaiah 66:13). A maternity that speaks without words,
which arouses consolation in hearts, a joy that paradoxically
coexists with pain, with suffering. Like Mary, the Church bears
within herself the tragedies of man, and the consolation of God, she
keeps them together, in the course of her pilgrimage in history.
Across the centuries, the Church shows the signs of the love of God,
who continues to do great things in humble and simple people.
Suffering that is accepted and offered, a sharing that is sincere
and free, are these not, perhaps, miracles of love? The courage to
face evils unarmed -- as Judith -- with the sole strength of faith
and of hope in the Lord, is this not a miracle that the grace of God
arouses continually in so many persons who spend time and energy
helping those who suffer? For all this we live a joy that does not
forget suffering, on the contrary, it includes it. In this way the
sick and all the suffering are in the Church not only recipients of
attention and care, but first and above all, protagonists of the
pilgrimage of faith and hope, witnesses of the prodigies of love, of
the paschal joy that flowers from the cross and the resurrection of
Christ.
In the passage of the Letter of James, just proclaimed, the Apostle
invites awaiting with constancy the already close coming of the Lord
and, in this context, addresses a particular exhortation to the
sick. This context is very interesting, because it reflects the
action of Jesus, who curing the sick showed the closeness of the
Kingdom of God. Sickness is seen in the perspective of the end
times, with the realism of hope that is typically Christian. "Is any
one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing
praise" (James 5:13). We seem to hear similar words in St. Paul,
when he invites to live everything in relation to the radical news
of Christ, his death and resurrection (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:29-31).
"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church,
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of
the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the
Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be
forgiven" (James 5:14-15). Evident here is the prolongation of
Christ in his Church; he is always the one who acts through the
presbyters; it is his same Spirit that operates through the
sacramental sign of the oil; it is to him that faith is directed,
expressed in prayer; and, as happened with the persons cured by
Jesus, one can say to each sick person: Your faith, supported by the
faith of brothers and sisters, has saved you.
From this text, which contains the foundation and practice of the
sacrament of the anointing of the sick, is extracted at the same
time a vision of the role of the sick in the Church: An active role
as it "provokes," so to speak, prayer made with faith. "Is any among
you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church." In this Year
for Priests, I wish to stress the bond between the sick and priests,
a sort of alliance, of evangelical "complicity." Both have a task:
The sick person must "call" the presbyters, and they must respond,
to bring upon the experience of sickness the presence and action of
the Risen One and of his Spirit. And here we can see all the
importance of the pastoral care of the sick, the value of which is
truly incalculable, because of the immense good it does in the first
place to the sick person and to the priest himself, but also to
relatives, to friends, to the community and, through hidden and
unknown ways, to the whole Church and to the world. In fact, when
the Word of God speaks of healing, of salvation, of the health of
the sick, it understands these concepts in an integral sense, never
separating soul and body: A sick person cured by Christ's prayer,
through the Church, is a joy on earth and in heaven, a first fruit
of eternal life.
Dear friends, as I wrote in the encyclical "Spe Salvi," "The true
measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to
suffering and to the sufferer" (No. 38). By instituting a dicastery
dedicated to health care ministry, the Church also wished to make
her own contribution to promote a world capable of receiving and
looking after the sick as persons. In fact, she has wished to help
them to live the experience of sickness in a human way, without
denying it, but giving it a meaning.
I would like to end these reflections with a thought of the
Venerable Pope John Paul II, to which he gave witness with his own
life. In the apostolic letter "Salvifici Doloris," he wrote: "At one
and the same time Christ has taught man to do good by his suffering
and to do good to those who suffer."
May the Virgin Mary help us to live this mission fully. Amen!
[Translation by ZENIT]
Look
at the One they Pierced!
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
