Dear
brothers and sisters!
Every year, on the occasion of the memorial of the Blessed
Virgin of Lourdes, which is celebrated on Feb. 11, the Church
proposes the World Day of the Sick. This circumstance becomes,
as the venerable John Paul II desired, the propitious occasion
to reflect on the mystery of suffering and, above all, to make
our communities and civil society more sensitive to sick
brothers and sisters. If every man is our brother, much more are
the weak, the suffering and those needful of care, and they must
be at the center of our attention, so that none of them feel
forgotten or marginalized; in fact, "the true measure of
humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering
and to the sufferer. This holds true both for the individual and
for society. A society unable to accept its suffering members
and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it
inwardly through 'com-passion' is a cruel and inhuman society"
("Spe Salvi," No. 38). May the initiatives that individual
dioceses promote on the occasion of this day be a stimulus to
make care for the suffering more and more effective, also in
view of the solemn celebration that will take place at the
Marian shrine in Altötting in Germany.
1. I still have in my heart the moment when, during the course
of the pastoral visit to Turin, I was able to pause in
reflection and prayer before the sacred Shroud, before that
suffering countenance, that invites us to meditate on him who
took upon himself man's suffering of every age and place, even
our sufferings, our difficulties, our sins. How many faithful
over the course of history have passed before that sepulchral
winding sheet, which covered the body of a crucified man, which
in everything corresponds to what the Gospels transmit about the
passion and death of Jesus! Contemplating him is an invitation
to reflect on what St. Peter writes: "By his wounds we have been
healed" (1 Peter 2:24).
The Son of God has suffered, he has died, but he is risen, it is
precisely because of this that those wounds become the sign of
our redemption, of our forgiveness and reconciliation with the
Father; they become, however, a test for the faith of the
disciples and our faith: every time that the Lord speaks of his
passion and death, they do not understand, they reject it, they
oppose it. For them as for us, suffering is always charged with
mystery, difficult to accept and bear. Because of the events
that had occurred in Jerusalem in those days the two disciples
of Emmaus walk along sadly, and only when the Risen One walks
along the road with them do they open up to a new vision (cf.
Luke 24:13-31). Even the apostle Thomas manifests the difficulty
of believing in the redemptive way of suffering: "Unless I see
the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the
nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe"
(John 20:25).
But before Christ who shows his wounds, his response is
transformed into a moving profession of faith: "My Lord and my
God!" (John 20:28). What was at first an insurmountable
obstacle, because it was the sign of Jesus’ apparent failure,
becomes, in the encounter with the Risen One, the proof of
victorious love: "Only a God who loves us to the extent of
taking upon himself our wounds and our pain, especially innocent
suffering, is worthy of faith" (Urbi et Orbi Message, Easter
2007).
2. Dear sick and suffering ones, it is precisely through the
sufferings of the Christ that we are able to see, with eyes of
hope, all the maladies that afflict humanity. Rising, the Lord
did not take away suffering and evil from the world, but he
defeated them at their root. To the arrogance of Evil he opposed
the omnipotence of his Love. He has shown us, then, that the way
of peace and joy is Love: "As I have loved you, so must you love
one another" (John 13:34). Christ, victor over death, is alive
and in our midst. And while with St. Thomas we also say: "My
Lord and my God!" we follow our Lord in readiness to spend our
life for our brothers (cf. 1 John 3:16), becoming messengers of
a joy that does not fear pain, the joy of the Resurrection.
St. Bernard said: "God cannot suffer, but he can suffer with."
God, who is Truth and Love in person, wanted to suffer for us
and with us; he became man to suffer with man, in a real way, in
flesh and blood. Into every human suffering, then, there has
entered One who shares suffering and endurance; he offers
consolation in all suffering, the consolation of the
participating love of God, which makes the star of hope rise
(cf. "Spe salvi," 39).
I repeat this message to you, dear brothers and sisters, so that
you become witnesses through your suffering, your life and your
faith.
3. Looking forward to the meeting in Madrid, in August 2011, for
World Youth Day, I would also like to address a special thought
to young people, especially those who live the experience of
sickness. Often, the Passion and the Cross of Jesus cause fear,
because they seem to be the negation of life. In reality, it is
exactly the contrary! The cross is God’s "yes" to mankind, the
highest and most intense expression of his love and the source
from which flows eternal life. From the pierced heart of Jesus
this divine life flows. He alone is capable of liberating the
world from evil and make his kingdom of justice, of peace and of
love grow, the kingdom to which we all aspire (cf. Message for
World Youth Day 2011, 3).
Dear young people, learn to "see" and to "meet" Jesus in the
Eucharist, where he is present for us in a real way, to the
point of making himself food for the journey, but know how to
recognize and serve him also in those brothers who are poor,
sick, suffering and in difficulty, who have need of your help
(cf. ibid., 4). To all of you young people, sick and healthy, I
repeat the invitation to create bridges of love and solidarity,
so that no one feels alone, but near to God and part of the
great family of his children (cf. General Audience, November 15,
2006).
4. Contemplating Jesus’ wounds our gaze turns to his most sacred
Heart in which God’s love manifests itself in the supreme way.
The Sacred Heart is Christ crucified, with his side opened by
the lance, from which blood and water flow (cf. John 19:34),
"symbol of the sacraments of the Church, that all men, drawn to
the Heart of the Savior, might drink from the perennial font of
salvation" (Roman Missal, Preface for the Solemnity of the Most
Sacred Heart of Jesus). Especially you, dear sick ones, should
feel the nearness of this Heart full of love and draw from this
font with faith and with joy, praying: "Water from the side of
Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. O good Jesus,
hear me. In your wounds, hide me" (Prayer of St. Ignatius of
Loyola).
5. At the end of this message of mine for the next World Day of
the Sick, I would like to express my affection to each and every
one, feeling myself a participant in the sufferings and hopes
that you have daily in union with Christ crucified and risen,
that he give you peace and healing of the heart. May the Virgin
Mary keep watch over you together with him. We invoke her
confidently under the titles Health of the Infirm and Consoler
of the Suffering. At the foot of the cross there is realized
through her Simeon’s prophecy: her Mother’s heart is pierced
(cf. Luke 2:35). From the abyss of her pain, a participation in
her Son’s, Mary is made capable of accepting her new mission: to
become the Mother of Christ in his members. In the hour of the
cross Jesus presents her to all of his disciples: "Behold your
son" (cf. John 19:26-27). The maternal compassion for the Son
becomes maternal compassion for each one of us in our daily
sufferings (cf. Homily at Lourdes, Sept. 15, 2008).
Dear brothers and sisters, for this World Day of the Sick, I
also invite the political authorities to invest more and more in
health systems that are a help and a support for the suffering,
above all the poorest and the most needy, and, addressing all
the dioceses, I offer an affectionate to the bishops, the
priests, consecrated persons, seminarians, health workers,
volunteers and all of those who dedicate themselves with love to
care for and sooth the wounds of every sick brother or sister,
in hospitals or nursing homes, in families: in the faces of the
sick know how to see always the face of faces -- that of Christ.
I assure everyone a remembrance in my prayer, while I impart to
each of you a special apostolic blessing.
From the Vatican, Nov. 21, 2010, Feast of Christ the King of the
Universe
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
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