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Pope Benedict XVI- Messages - Christmas |
 Message
for the 16th World Day of the Sick
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
"Mary Suffers With Those Who Are in Affliction"
To be celebrated on February 11, 2008
Dear Brothers
and Sisters!
1. On 11 February, the memorial of the Blessed Mary Virgin of
Lourdes, the World Day of the Sick will be celebrated, a
propitious occasion to reflect on the meaning of pain and the
Christian duty to take responsibility for it in whatever
situation it arises. This year this significant day is connected
to two important events for the life of the Church, as one
already understands from the theme chosen 'The Eucharist,
Lourdes and Pastoral Care for the Sick': the one hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions of the Immaculate Mary
at Lourdes, and the celebration of the International Eucharistic
Congress at Quebec in Canada. In this way, a remarkable
opportunity to consider the close connection that exists between
the Mystery of the Eucharist, the role of Mary in the project of
salvation, and the reality of human pain and suffering, is
offered to us.
The hundred and fifty years since the apparitions of Lourdes
invite us to turn our gaze towards the Holy Virgin, whose
Immaculate Conception constitutes the sublime and freely-given
gift of God to a woman so that she could fully adhere to divine
designs with a steady and unshakable faith, despite the
tribulations and the sufferings that she would have to face. For
this reason, Mary is a model of total self-abandonment to the
will of God: she received in her heart the eternal Word and she
conceived it in her virginal womb; she trusted to God and, with
her soul pierced by a sword (cf. Lk 2:35), she did not hesitate
to share the passion of her Son, renewing on Calvary at the foot
of the Cross her 'Yes' of the Annunciation. To reflect upon the
Immaculate Conception of Mary is thus to allow oneself to be
attracted by the 'Yes' which joined her wonderfully to the
mission of Christ, the redeemer of humanity; it is to allow
oneself to be taken and led by her hand to pronounce in one's
turn 'fiat' to the will of God, with all one's existence
interwoven with joys and sadness, hopes and disappointments, in
the awareness that tribulations, pain and suffering make rich
the meaning of our pilgrimage on the earth.
2. One cannot contemplate Mary without being attracted by Christ
and one cannot look at Christ without immediately perceiving the
presence of Mary. There is an indissoluble link between the
Mother and the Son, generated in her womb by work of the Holy
Spirit, and this link we perceive, in a mysterious way, in the
Sacrament of the Eucharist, as the Fathers of the Church and
theologians pointed out from the early centuries onwards. 'The
flesh born of Mary, coming from the Holy Spirit, is bread
descended from heaven', observed St. Hilary of Poitiers. In the
"Bergomensium Sacramentary" of the ninth century we read: 'Her
womb made flower a fruit, a bread that has filled us with an
angelic gift. Mary restored to salvation what Eve had destroyed
by her sin'. And St. Pier Damiani observed: 'That body that the
most blessed Virgin generated, nourished in her womb with
maternal care, that body I say, without doubt and no other, we
now receive from the sacred altar, and we drink its blood as a
sacrament of our redemption. This is what the Catholic faith
believes, this the holy Church faithfully teaches'. The link of
the Holy Virgin with the Son, the sacrificed Lamb who takes away
the sins of the world, is extended to the Church, the mystic
Body of Christ. Mary, observes the Servant of God John Paul II,
is a 'woman of the Eucharist' in her whole life, as a result of
which the Church, seeing Mary as her model, 'is also called to
imitate her in her relationship with this most holy mystery'
(Encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia," n. 53). In this
perspective one understands even further why in Lourdes the cult
of the Blessed Virgin Mary is joined to a strong and constant
reference to the Eucharist with daily Celebrations of the
Eucharist, with adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament, and with
the blessing of the sick, which constitutes one of the strongest
moments of the visit of pilgrims to the grotto of Massabielles.
The presence of many sick pilgrims in Lourdes, and of the
volunteers who accompany them, helps us to reflect on the
maternal and tender care that the Virgin expresses towards human
pain and suffering. Associated with the Sacrifice of Christ,
Mary, Mater Dolorosa, who at the foot of the Cross suffers with
her divine Son, is felt to be especially near by the Christian
community, which gathers around its suffering members, who bear
the signs of the passion of the Lord. Mary suffers with those
who are in affliction, with them she hopes, and she is their
comfort, supporting them with her maternal help. And is it not
perhaps true that the spiritual experience of very many sick
people leads us to understand increasingly that 'the Divine
Redeemer wishes to penetrate the soul of every sufferer through
the heart of his holy Mother, the first and the most exalted of
all the redeemed'? (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, "Salvifici
doloris," n. 26).
3. If Lourdes leads us to reflect upon the maternal love of the
Immaculate Virgin for her sick and suffering children, the next
International Eucharistic Congress will be an opportunity to
worship Jesus Christ present in the Sacrament of the altar, to
entrust ourselves to him as Hope that does not disappoint, to
receive him as that medicine of immortality which heals the body
and the spirit. Jesus Christ redeemed the world through his
suffering, his death and his resurrection, and he wanted to
remain with us as the 'bread of life' on our earthly pilgrimage.
'The Eucharist, Gift of God for the Life of the World': this is
the theme of the Eucharistic Congress and it emphasizes how the
Eucharist is the gift that the Father makes to the world of His
only Son, incarnated and crucified. It is he who gathers us
around the Eucharistic table, provoking in his disciples loving
care for the suffering and the sick, in whom the Christian
community recognizes the face of its Lord. As I pointed out in
the Post-Synodal Exhortation "Sacramentum caritatis,"
'Our communities, when they celebrate the Eucharist, must become
ever more conscious that the sacrifice of Christ is for all, and
that the Eucharist thus compels all who believe in him to become
"bread that is broken" for others' (n. 88). We are thus
encouraged to commit ourselves in the first person to helping
our brethren, especially those in difficulty, because the
vocation of every Christian is truly that of being, together
with Jesus, bread that is broken for the life of the world.
4. It thus appears clear that it is specifically from the
Eucharist that pastoral care in health must draw the necessary
spiritual strength to come effectively to man's aid and to help
him to understand the salvific value of his own suffering. As
the Servant of God John Paul II was to write in the already
quoted Apostolic Letter Salvifici doloris, the Church
sees in her suffering brothers and sisters as it were a multiple
subject of the supernatural power of Christ (cf. n. 27).
Mysteriously united to Christ, the man who suffers with love and
meek self-abandonment to the will of God becomes a living
offering for the salvation of the world.
My beloved Predecessor also stated that 'The more a person is
threatened by sin, the heavier the structures of sin which
today's world brings with it, the greater is the eloquence which
human suffering possesses in itself. And the more the Church
feels the need to have recourse to the value of human sufferings
for the salvation of the world' (ibidem). If, therefore, at
Quebec the mystery of the Eucharist, the gift of God for the
life of the world, is contemplated during the World Day of the
Sick in an ideal spiritual parallelism, not only will the actual
participation of human suffering in the salvific work of God be
celebrated, but the valuable fruits promised to those who
believe can in a certain sense be enjoyed. Thus pain, received
with faith, becomes the door by which to enter the mystery of
the redemptive suffering of Jesus and to reach with him the
peace and the happiness of his Resurrection.
5. While I extend my cordial greetings to all sick people and to
all those who take care of them in various ways, I invite the
diocesan and parish communities to celebrate the next World Day
of the Sick by appreciating to the full the happy coinciding of
the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions of
Our Lady at Lourdes with the International Eucharistic Congress.
May it be an occasion to emphasizes the importance of the Holy
Mass, of the Adoration of the Eucharist and of the cult of the
Eucharist, so that chapels in our health-care centres become a
beating heart in which Jesus offers himself unceasingly to the
Father for the life of humanity! The distribution of the
Eucharist to the sick as well, done with decorum and in a spirit
of prayer, is true comfort for those who suffer, afflicted by
all forms of infirmity.
May the next World Day of the Sick be, in addition, a propitious
circumstance to invoke in a special way the maternal protection
of Mary over those who are weighed down by illness; health-care
workers; and workers in pastoral care in health! I think in
particular of priests involved in this field, women and men
religious, volunteers and all those who with active dedication
are concerned to serve, in body and soul, the sick and those in
need. I entrust all to Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother,
the Immaculate Conception. May she help everyone in testifying
that the only valid response to human pain and suffering is
Christ, who in resurrecting defeated death and gave us the life
that knows no end. With these feelings, from my heart I impart
to everyone my special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 11 January 2008
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
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