11 February 1999
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
1. The next World Day of the Sick, 11 February
1999, according to what is becoming an established tradition, will have its
most solemn celebration at an important Marian shrine.
Because of circumstances of time and place, the
choice of the shrine of Our Lady of Harissa, on the
hill overlooking Beirut, will acquire a rich and varied meaning. The land that
hosts this shrine is Lebanon, which, as I have already had occasion to point
out, “is more than a country: it is a message of freedom and an example of
pluralism for East and West” (Rome, 7 September 1989, in Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, XII/2, p. 176.)
From the shrine of Harissa,
the watchful statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary looks out over the Mediterranean
coast, so close to the land where Jesus went “preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people” (Mt 4:23). Nearby is the region which
preserves the bodies of the martyrs Cosmas and
Damian, who, in accepting Christ’s command to “preach the kingdom of God and to
heal the sick” (Lk
9:2), did so with such generosity that they earned the title of the holy moneyless doctors: in fact, they practised medicine without pay.
In the preparation for the Great Jubilee of the
Year 2000, 1999 will be dedicated to a more attentive reflection on God the
Father. In his First Letter, the Apostle John reminds us that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16). How
could reflection on this mystery not intensify the theological virtue of
charity, in its twofold reality as love of God and neighbour?
2. In this perspective, as we approach the end
of the second millennium of the Christian era, the Church’s preferential option
for the poor and for those who are suffering in body and soul will assume the
nature of a “journey of authentic conversion” to the Gospel. This will
certainly lead to a growing quest for unity among all men and women, in order
to build the civilization of love (cf. Apostolic Letter Tertio millennio adveniente,
nn. 50-52), under the sign of the Mother of
Jesus, “the perfect model of love towards both God and neighbour”
(ibid., n. 54).
Today, what place on earth could be better than
Lebanon to symbolize unity among Christians and the encounter for all human
beings in the communion of love? Lebanon, in addition to being a place where
Catholic communities of different traditions and various Christian communities
live in harmony, is also the crossroads of many religions. As such, it is well
suited to serve as a laboratory “for building together a future of coexistence
and co-operation in view of the human and moral growth” of peoples (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation A New Hope for Lebanon. n. 93).
The World Day of the Sick, whose meeting point
will be in Lebanon, invites the universal Church to ask herself about her
service towards that condition which, by highlighting more than any other the
limitations and frailty of human creatures, also calls for their mutual
solidarity. The Day thus becomes an important time to think of the Father and a
necessary reminder of the primary commandment of love, for our observance of
which we will all be called to give an account (cf. Mt 25:31-46). The model to inspire us was indicated by Jesus
himself in the figure of the Good Samaritan, the keyword for fully
understanding the commandment to love our neighbour
(cf. Lk
10:25-37).
3. The next World Day of the Sick, then, must
be characterized by a hightened awareness of the duty
of charity, which will not fail to be emphasized by the gathering for
reflection, study and prayer at the shrine of Our Lady of Harissa
— a pilgrimage destination for all the Lebanese Christian communities of the
various Churches, as well as for devout Muslims. The need for unity will be
increased by that “ecumenism of works”,
which, in caring for the sick, the suffering, the marginalized, the poor and
the destitute, is the most urgent and, at the same time, least arduous form of
ecumenism, as experience now shows. On this journey it will be possible not
only to seek “full unity” among those
who profess to be Christian, but also to be open to interreligious
dialogue in a place like Lebanon, where different religious beliefs “have in
common a certain number of indisputable human and spiritual values”, which can
also spur people, “beyond the important differences between the religions”, to
discern first and foremost what unites them (Post-Synodal
Apostolic Exhortation A New Hope for
Lebanon, nn. 13-14).
4. No petition rises from the human heart with
greater intensity than the request for health and salvation. Thus it should
come as no surprise that human solidarity at all levels is an urgent priority
that can and must be fostered in the field of health. It is therefore urgently
necessary “to make a serious and thorough study of the organization of
health-care services in the institutions, with a concern to make them places
for giving ever greater witness of love for mankind” (ibid., n. 102).
In turn, the response expected by those who suffer
should be adapted to the recipient's condition, who longs above all for the
gift of sympathetic understanding, supportive love and generous dedication to
the point of heroism.
May contemplation of the mystery of God’s
fatherhood give hope to the sick and become a school of loving concern for
those who care for them.
5. To the sick
of every age and condition, to the victims of every kind of infirmity,
disaster and tragedy, I extend my invitation to throw themselves into God's
fatherly arms. We know that life is a gift given to us by the Father as a
sublime expression of his love, and that it continues to be a gift from him in
every circumstance. All our most responsible choices, whose objective, because
of our limitations, can sometimes seem obscure and uncertain, must be guided by
this conviction. The psalmist’s invitation is based on it: “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will
sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved” (Ps 55 [54]:22).
Commenting on these words, St Augustine wrote:
“What will you worry about? What will you be anxious for? He who made you will
take care of you. Will he who took care of you before you came into being not
take care of you now, when you are what he wanted you to be? Because now you
are a believer; you are walking on the way of justice. Will he, then, who
causes his sun to rise on the good and the evil, and his rain to fall on the
just and the unjust, not take care of you? Will he neglect, forsake or desert
you who are already just and live by faith? On the contrary, he blesses you, he
helps you, he gives you what you need, he defends you from adversity. In giving
you gifts, he consoles you so that you will persevere. In taking them from you,
he corrects you, so that you will not perish; the Lord cares for you; do not be
anxious. He who created you supports you; do not fall from your Creator’s hand;
if you fall from the hand of your Maker, you will break. Your good will will help you stay in the hands of your Creator.... Abandon
yourself to him; do not think that you are about to fall into the void; do not
imagine such a thing. He has said: 'I will fill the heavens and the earth'. He
will never fail you; do not fail him; do not fail yourself” (Enarr. in Psalmos 39,
26, 27: CCL 38, 445).
6. To health-care
workers: — doctors, pharmacists, nurses, chaplains, men and women
religious, administrators and volunteer workers — called by their vocation and
profession to be guardians and servants of human life, I once again point to
Christ’s example: sent by the Father as the supreme proof of his infinite love
(cf. Jn
3:16), he has taught man “to do good by his suffering and to do good to those
who suffer”, thus completely revealing “in this double aspect the meaning of
suffering” (Apostolic Letter Salvifici doloris, n. 30).
In the school of those who suffer, may you
understand through loving kindness the profound reasons for the mystery of
suffering. May the pain you witness be the measure of the dedicated response
expected of you. And in rendering this service to life, be open to the
collaboration of all, because “the issue of life and its defence
and promotion is not a concern of Christians alone.... Life certainly has a
sacred and religious value, but in no way is that value a concern only of
believers” (Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, n.
101). And just as the suffering ask only for help, so accept everyone’s help
when it is offered as a loving response.
7. I extend a pressing invitation to the ecclesial community to make the year of
the Father one of practical charity, a charity of works, through the full
involvement of all ecclesial institutions. St Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the
Ephesians that love is the way to God. Faith and love are the beginning and the
end of life; faith is the beginning and love is the end (cf. PG, V, 651). All the virtues conspire
with these two to lead man to perfection. St Augustine, for his part, teaches:
“If therefore you cannot read all the pages of Scripture one by one, nor unroll
the volumes that contain God’s Word, nor penetrate all the mysteries of Sacred
Scripture, have love, on which everything depends. Thus you will know not only
what you would have learned there, but also what you have not yet been able to
learn” (Sermo 350, 2-3: PL 39, 1534).
8. On this World Day of the Sick, may the
Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Harissa, be close with her
sublime example to all who are suffering; may she inspire all who bear witness
to the Christian faith through service to the sick; may she guide everyone with
a motherly hand to the house of the Father of all mercy. May she who has
watched over the agonizing suffering of the Lebanese people instil
in the world, through the hope that has blossomed again in that land, a renewed
trust in the healing power of love, and may she gather them all, like lost
children, under her mantle. May the new millennium which is about to begin open
an era of renewed trust in man, the supreme creation of God’s love, who in love
alone will rediscover the meaning of his own life and destiny.
From the Vatican, 8
December 1998