To the sick and disabled in the
Cathedral of
CHRIST HAS GRAFTED INTO SUFFERING
REDEMPTION AND THE LIGHT OF HOPE
In the afternoon of
Sunday, 3 October, the Holy Father met a large group of the sick and disabled
in the Cathedral of
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1.
Jesus welcomed all who were suffering physically and morally. He even went to meet them. One could apply to him this word of Isaiah: “He took our infirmities and accepted the
burden of our sicknesses”(Mt.
I
have listened attentively to the beautiful testimony given by your spokesman,
who is himself sick, and that of your friend who represents all those who work
in the pastoral service of the sick. I
too have Good News to share with you, in the name of Jesus I shall try to do so
briefly, for the sick and disabled expect that I should stop beside each one of
them, as a witness to the tenderness of God.
2. You fill this
Technique and devotion
3.
Together with the sick and the disabled, I greet the representatives of all
those who devote their time, their skills and their heart to caring for
them: doctors, technicians, researchers,
teachers, medical students, those who give spiritual support, members of the
personnel who nurse and who work in administration, those who work in medicine
or psychiatric care, or also in giving social assistance, those who work in the
social sciences.
I
know that
I
encourage you to pursue your research boldly; to give the maximum skill in
nursing care; to fight illness in all
its forms, and also in the natural or human causes of sickness. All this belongs to the plan of God, who gave
man intelligence, and skill so that he might make
progress in the discovery of the human organism and put the fruits of this
discovery at the service of man. When
you defend human life, you are cooperating with God.
Today, this medical progress demands a generous solidarity and a rigorous
collaboration among you, believers or unbelievers, with the help of the State
and with the contribution which the Church has willingly given all through her
history, according to her possibilities.
On this point, the Gospel is a strong appeal to get people moving. The new commission which I have set up at the
Holy See for the pastoral care of those who work in the health service shows
this concern.
Those who nurse must bring more than a technique: they must bring a warm devotion that comes
from the heart, and an attention to the
dignity of the person. Be always
careful not to reduce the sick person to an object of care - make him the first
partner in a combat that is his combat.
And, in the grave ethical problems that are posed to your professions, I
encourage you to find the demanding answers that are in conformity to the
dignity of the life of the sick person and to his character as a person.
Your
professions, dear friends, often demand from you a work that is crushing:
sometimes you feel yourselves to be without defences in the face of so many
sufferings, in the face of the precariousness of life. But what a noble service is given by you to
humanity! You are like the good
Samaritans of the Gospel. And this
service has no frontiers, for the needs of health care are immense and urgent in the
As I
said, your sick people need to be accompanied in a way that is as human as
possible. They need a spiritual accompaniment: here, you are aware that you are on the
threshold of a mystery that belongs to them.
4.
And you, dear sick and disabled people,
how well we understand your hope of getting better, of being cured, your thirst
to live better, to live fully, in your human organism! The sick came to Jesus with the same hope. And in addition to nursing, you desire to be
surrounded by care, love, and tenderness.
Although you often suffer from an inevitable state of depending on
others, you too would like to have a certain activity as far as your health
allows you: you wish to feel yourselves useful in society and in the
Church. You wish to take your place
there, to enter the network of solidarity with other sick people and also of
solidarity with those who are in good health.
We wish fervently that you may find this integration, in families, in
the associations of the disabled, in the Christian communities.
Dear
friends, yours is a yet deeper experience, a personal experience which you can
share in part, but which remains the secret of your pain in the trials of
suffering and, I hope, in hope that comes from faith. Sometimes those who accompany you, those near
to you, your priests are permitted to see this experience which is difficult to
express. It can be a feeling of anguish,
even a revolt: why should I have to suffer in these circumstances? It can also be a reflection that is nurtured
in patience, a calm, even a certain interior joy that comes from the
awareness of being in solidarity with others who are put to the test, and from
the certainty of being loved by God and of being unified to Christ on the
cross.
A great mystery
5.
Useful? You are assuredly useful by
the simple fact of your presence. In a world marked by anonymity, technology,
haste, concern for output, the thirst for pleasures that can be experienced
immediately, you are there simply with the value of your person, with your
interior life, with your need for true human relationships. Thus the world halts before you and begins
again to consider what is essential: the
meaning of life, disinterested love, the gift of self.
If
you have the happiness to be believers, and if you look at Christ crucified,
then you will penetrate more deeply into a great mystery that is hidden from
the eyes of the world. After having
cured as many sick people as possible, Christ passed from compassion to the
Passion. He took suffering on himself,
without seeking to explain it. No one
has entered this mystery as Christ did.
In him, suffering was joined to
love, and suffering was redeemed.
When it was offered, it became a redemptive power, transfigured in the
Resurrection. Yes, Christ has grafted on
to the root of suffering the might of the redemption and the light of
hope. And so the believer who suffers -
in the crucible of his suffering, which remains intact - unites himself in silence to the redemption of Christ,
like Mary at the foot of the cross. It
is not a case of passive resignation or of fatalism, for such a sick person
continues to desire to live, with the help of the doctors; but he is ready to
give up his life to God, when the moment of the great journey comes. He lives out of the grace of love. This is a gift of God; I ask it for you.
I
can tell you that the efficacy of my ministry as successor of Peter, to ensure
the fidelity and the unity of all the Church, owes much to the prayer and the
offering of the sick. I entrust it to
you. You yourselves have a great place
in my heart and in my prayer. I have
dedicated to you a long letter on the Christian meaning of suffering, Salvifici Doloris, on
6.
Before I arrived, you took part in the
Eucharist. St. Irenaeus, that great Bishop of
Lyons, insisted on the marvel whereby God places the incorruptible Body of
Christ in our corruptible bodies in holy
Communion. The sacraments of the
Eucharist and of reconciliation are healing gestures of Christ, which were
signified and outlined in his miracles:
these sacraments are the pledge of the fullness of salvation which God
promises. We are called to life eternal,
face to face with the living God, “Blessed are the afflicted, for they
shall be consoled”! This is the Good
News of the Lord Jesus.
My wish is that you may now feel that the love of God has drawn near to you, through the affection of your family, through the devotion of those who care for you, and through the pastoral work of the Church on your behalf. With all my heart, I bless each one of you, as well as all those who accompany you