To the sick
in Southwark Cathedral
SUFFERING CAN ENRICH THE INDIVIDUAL
AND THE
28 May 1982
After meeting Queen Elizabeth II at
My
brothers and sisters,
1.
Praised be Jesus Christ! Praised be
Jesus Christ who invites us to share in his life through our Baptism. Praised be Jesus Christ who calls us to unite our sufferings to his so that
we may be one with him in giving glory to the Father in heaven.
Today I greet you in the name of Jesus.
I thank all of you for the welcome you have given me. I want you to know how I have looked forward
to this meeting with you, especially with those of you who are sick, disabled
or infirm. I myself have had a share in
suffering and I have known the physical weakness that comes with injury and
sickness.
2. It
is precisely because I have experienced suffering that I am able to affirm with
ever greater conviction what Saint Paul says in the second reading: “Neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom
8:38-39).
Dear
friends, there is no force or power that can block God's love for you. Sickness
and suffering seem to contradict all that is worthy, all that is desired by
man. And
yet no disease, no injury, no infirmity can ever deprive you of your dignity as
children of God, as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
3.By his dying on the Cross, Christ
shows us how to make sense of our suffering.
In his Passion we find the inspiration and strength to turn away from
any temptation to resentment and grow through pain into new life.
Suffering is an invitation to be
more like the Son in doing the Father's will.
It offers us
an opportunity to imitate Christ who died to redeem mankind from sin. Thus the Father has disposed that suffering
can enrich the individual and the whole Church.
4.We acknowledge that the Anointing of the Sick is for the
benefit of the whole person. We find
this point demonstrated in the liturgical texts of the sacramental
celebration: “Make this oil a remedy for
all who are anointed with it, heal them in body in soul and in spirit, and
deliver them from every affliction.
The anointing is therefore a source of
strength for both the soul and the body.
The prayer of the Church asks that sin and the remnants of sin be taken
away (cf DS 1969). It also implores a
restoration of health, but always in order that bodily healing may bring greater union with God through the
increase of grace.
In
her teaching on this sacrament, the Church passes on the truth contained in our
first reading from Saint James: “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).
5.This sacrament should be approached in a spirit of great
confidence, like the leper in the Gospel that has just been proclaimed. Even the desperateness of the man's condition
did not stop him from approaching Jesus with trust. We too
must believe in Christ's healing love and reaffirm that nothing will separate
us from that love. Surely Jesus
wishes to say “I will; be clean”(Mt 8:3): be healed; be strong; be saved.
My
dear brothers and sisters, as you live the Passion of Christ you strengthen the
Church by the witness of your faith. You
proclaim by your patience, your endurance and your joy the mystery of
Christ's redeeming power. You will find
the crucified Lord in the midst of your sickness and suffering.
6.As
Veronica ministered to Christ on his way to Calvary, so Christians have
accepted the care of those in pain and sorrow as privileged opportunities to
minister to Christ himself. I commend
and bless all those who work for the sick in hospitals, residential homes and
centres of care for the dying. I would like to say to you doctors, nurses,
chaplains and all other hospital staff: Yours is a noble vocation. Remember
it is Christ to whom you minister in the sufferings of your brothers and
sisters.
7.I support with all my heart those who
recognize and defend the law of God which governs human life. We must never forget that every person, from the moment of conception to
the last breath, is a unique child of God and has a right to life. This right should be defended by the
attentive care of the medical and nursing professions and by the protection of
the law. Every human life is willed by
our heavenly Father and is a part of his loving plan.
No state has the right to contradict moral
values which are rooted in the nature of man himself. These values are the precious heritage of
civilization. If society begins to deny
the worth of any individual or to subordinate the human person to pragmatic or
utilitarian considerations, it begins to destroy the defences that safeguard
its own fundamental values.
8.Today I make an urgent plea to this nation. Do not neglect your sick and elderly. Do not turn away from the handicapped and the
dying. Do not push them to the margins
of society. For if you
do, you will fail to understand that they represent an important truth. The sick, the elderly, the handicapped and
the dying teach us that weakness is a creative part of human living, and that
suffering can be embraced with no loss of dignity. Without the presence of these people in your
midst you might be tempted to think of health, strength and power as the only
important values to be pursued in life. But the wisdom of Christ and the power of
Christ are to be seen in the weakness of those who share his sufferings.
Let
us keep the sick and the handicapped at the centre of our lives. Let us treasure them and recognize with
gratitude the debt we owe them. We begin
by imagining that we are giving to them: we end by realizing that they have
enriched us.
May
God bless and comfort all who suffer.
And may Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world and healer of the sick,
make his light shine through human weakness as a beacon for us and for all
mankind. Amen.
My
dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as we speak of suffering, affliction and
death, we cannot forget those who have suffered and died during the armed
conflict in the
May
he give eternal rest to those who have died in Christ and to those who mourn in
Christian hope and let us pray that negotiations may pave the way to a just and
lasting peace. We ask this through
Christ our Lord. Amen.