To the staff and patients of the Umberto I Hospital in Rome

SUFFERING STRENGTHENS HOPE

19 December 1993

On Sunday, 19 December, the Holy Father visited the staff and patients of the Umberto I Hospital in Rome. Recalling the centenary of the foundation of the hospital, the Holy Father went on to say that “the bitter experience of suffering has a value which is profoundly meaningful for our life”. Here is a translation of the Pope's address which he gave in Italian.

Dear Rector,

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Umberto I Hospital of Rome,

1. I am particularly glad to meet you just a few days before we celebrate the Christmas mystery. I would first and foremost like to offer you my most sincere wishes for the forthcoming celebrations, and assure you of my constant remembrance in prayer. I shall pray for you above all on the Holy Night, when we shall relive the mystery of Jesus's birth in the faith.

I sincerely thank Professor Tecce, Rector of your university, for the courteous words of welcome which he has just addressed to me on behalf of the administrators, doctors, nurses, auxiliaries, health care workers, chaplains and sisters and also on behalf of the Faculty of Medicine of the great University of Rome. I sincerely thank him.

In cordially returning the sentiments he has shown me, I wish to stress that I listened with keen interest to the explanation of the proposals and hopes which give purpose to the life of your university hospital that is celebrating the centenary of its foundation this year. A hundred years is a long time, and it is right to pause and reflect on the illustrious personalities who have worked in this centre, making its name renowned not only in Italy, but also beyond the nation's borders. Their testimony is reassuring for all those who today undertake to carry out their mission in the service of life undermined by disease. I express the hope that, thanks to everyone's contribution, the work of this great health care structure, a place of suffering but also of a wealth of human and spiritual experience, may be increasingly marked by solidarity and genuine concern for the sick.

To you, dear patients, I address a particularly affectionate thought. I join in your expectation of being cured, spiritually sharing your affliction and hoping that it may soon end, so that each may return to his own home and family as soon as possible.

2. The liturgy of this Fourth Sunday of Advent recalls the Gospel account of the Annunciation, Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth, accepts with absolute docility the divine will revealed to her by the Angel, and prepares herself through an incomparable grace to become the Saviour's Mother. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus” (Lk 1:31).

Precisely by virtue of the Incarnation of the only-begotten Son, God shows himself to the world not as a supreme, distant and indifferent being, but as the Father, who thoroughly understands the torment of humanity and shoulders this burden, suffering with man and for man. The mystery of the Incarnation, a mystery of salvation directed to the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, therefore reveals the infinite love of the Creator who makes himself totally one with his creature. He seeks out all those who are suffering, who are marked by life's tribulations, he stands at their side, supports them and comforts them, offering each his mercy, compassion and genuine consolation.

Human suffering reached its culmination in the Passion of Christ. At the same time, “it has entered into a completely new dimension and a new order: it has been linked to love”(Salvifici doloris, n. 18). Taking it upon himself, the Crucified revealed the prospect of true hope for all the suffering in the world. Thus the Cross is transformed, it becomes the instrument of salvation. Here God's true omnipotence is fully revealed; it is not a “miraculous”, dazzling omnipotence, but indeed that of the cross, a crucified omnipotence which causes life to spring from death.

3. Dear brothers and sisters, against the background of the cross and in the spiritual atmosphere of Christmas, we are called to become aware that even the bitter experience of suffering has values which are profoundly meaningful for our life.

Experiencing suffering can in fact help us to strengthen hope and give it fresh vigour. Faced with the mystery of human frailty, faith awakens the desire for a more complete and loftier well-being which includes the health of body and of soul, the desire for a greater, more definitive salvation, prepared by God for the people of every age.

The trial of suffering can increase and expand our charitable attention to others. Indeed, suffering shows the precarious nature of life and its weaknesses; discovering our own limits helps us to understand those of our neighbours and sheds light on the need to reach out to them with prompt and available solidarity.

All this undoubtedly does not divest human pain of its tragedy but can foster the hope that it may become an epiphany of the resurrection and reveal the divine dimension in humanity's fragile condition.

Let us raise our eyes then, dear brothers and sisters, to the Redeemer who, as he himself promises, will wipe every tear from our eyes and welcome us in the new world where there will be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain (cf. Rv 12:4).

4. Dear brothers and sisters, with these feelings, full of faith we fix our gaze on the Child of Bethlehem.

May the celebration of this coming Christmas also be for each of you an occasion for renewed spiritual courage; man the light that shines on the people who walked in darkness (cf. Is 9;1) illuminate your lives, filling you with comfort.

This is my hope which I renew to the whole family of the Umberto 1 Hospital, to the professors in charge, to the doctors, to the staff, to the patients and their families and to the students, who are doing their internship here. I invoke God's protection on each one of them, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Lord and Mother of every man.

I wholeheartedly bless you all.