To the
patients and personnel of the Bambino Gesù Children's
Hospital
In the evening of
Tuesday, 8 June, Pope John Paul II visited Bambino Gesu'
Children's Hospital to bless and inaugurate the new medical-surgical centre for
pediatric cardiology and gave the following address.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
My
dear Brothers and Sisters,
1.Once again I have come, filled with emotion, to visit the
Bambino Gesu'
But
I have come to this place especially because called here at the instance of the
thin, agonized cry of these children who bear in their fragile little bodies
the weight of sickness and suffering, and I want to tell them and show them, in
your name, in the name of the Church, all the enormous affection with which we
want to surround them, particularly in the times of their most acute weakness.
We share in the
suffering of Jesus
2.Visiting a hospital, and a children's
hospital in particular, arouses in the depths of one's heart some of the most
radical questions about the meaning of life and man's existence: the
continuous, incessant, inescapable presence of suffering, especially that of
the “innocent”, strikes the astonished and perplexed human reason as a genuine
“scandal” capable of bringing into question and dangerous crises the
certainties on which our intellectual, religious and ethical life is based. The heartfelt whimpering and the piercing
crying of a suffering child can seem almost a protest by the whole of humanity
against the impenetrable silence of God, who permits such an amount of
suffering.
Where human reason seems to come up against a thick wall of shadow and considers itself right in assuming
an attitude of revolt, the Divine Word introduces us into the “mystery” of
human suffering, presenting to our consideration and our experience Jesus,
Christ and Lord, the Son of God, in whom the prophetic figure of the “Suffering
Servant” and “Man of Sorrows” (Is 53:3) takes flesh: Jesus, who is so deeply
moved in the face of others' suffering, who takes on suffering completely in
his Passion and Death, the obligatory passage for his Resurrection and
Glorification.
Well
then, if we suffer, we share in the sufferings of Jesus, in order, as Saint
Paul will tell us, that we may also share in his glory (Rom 8 17). If we carry always and everywhere in our body
the sufferings and death of Jesus, it is so that the life of Jesus may also be
manifested in our body (cf 2 Cor
In
this Christian view of pain, the lament and crying of those who suffer,
especially children, are not therefore a bitter protest, but a solemn, pure and
stirring prayer of entreaty which is raised from this poor earth to the throne
of God, that all men may be freed and purified from evil, that they may order
their lives in harmony with the demands of divine revelation and may show
themselves genuine “children of God.”
Blessed are you
3.From this point of view, Jesus declared “blessed” those who mourn and
are afflicted, for they will be comforted (cf. Mt 5:4); and on the day of his
return in glory as supreme and final judge of history, he will identify himself
with all the suffering of the earth:
“...I was sick and you visited me as you did it to one of the least of
these my brethren, you did it to me” (cf. Mt 25:36, 40). This solemn proclamation from the lips of
Christ must give a new and supernatural meaning to the task which you all
perform on behalf of the least of the brethren of Jesus, the children who are
sick and suffering. Your specific
competence, your exemplary devotion, your generous commitment are directed
towards Jesus, the God-Man, who is mysteriously present in them. It is in this spirit of the Gospel that your
profession, in itself worthy of the greatest respect, becomes an authentic
“mission” of faith and a contribution to the total elevation of man, made in
the image and likeness of God.
From
this place of suffering, but also of hope, I would like to address an
invitation, an appeal, to scientists and those in whose hands is the fate of
the earthly city: it is urgent, it is
necessary, that enterprises, studies, research and contributions be directed
and coordinated towards the alleviation of the suffering of our brethren who
have been struck by various calamities and are the victims of illness. It is necessary to provide the proper finance
for these studies and researches geared to the physical health of
citizens. Let not the largest
expenditure of the various countries be for armaments, the most sophisticated
instruments capable only of causing destruction, death and desperation, while
on the other hand no attention is given to those works and initiatives which
are necessary and cannot be deferred if the life of men, even from a health
point of view, is to be spent quietly and serenely in peace, justice and order.
It
is my wish that this pediatric hospital, the Bambino Gesu', will be a forward-pointing sign and a centre for
studies in which these little children will be offered, along with the ever
more advanced treatments which technology and science can provide, the most
sensitive affection and devotion, inspired by the message of love of the Gospel
of Christ.
With these wishes and in this spirit, I whole-heartedly confer my Apostolic Blessing upon these dear patients, the members of their families, the administration, the doctors, the paramedical staff, the sisters, the friends of the Bambino Gesu' and all here present