MESSAGE FOR THE VIII WORLD DAY OF THE SICK
11 February 2000
1.The Eighth World Day of the Sick will be held in Rome on 11
February 2000, the year of the Great Jubilee, and will find the Christian
community dedicated to re-examining the reality of illness and suffering in the
perspective of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, to draw from
this extraordinary event new light to illumine these basic human experiences.
At the end
of the second millennium of the Christian era, as the Church looks with
admiration at humanity’s progress in the treatment of suffering and improved
health care, she is paying attention to the questions raised by the health-care
sector, the better to define her presence in this context and to respond
appropriately to the pressing challenges of the time.
Throughout
history, people have made the most of their intellectual and emotional
resources to overcome the limits inherent in the human condition, and have made
great breakthroughs in health care. It is enough to think of the possibility of
prolonging life and improving its quality, of alleviating suffering and of
increasing a person’s potential through the use of good, reliable medicines and
increasingly sophisticated technologies. In addition to these achievements are
those of a social kind, such as the widespread awareness of the right to
treatment and its expression in juridical terms in the various “Charters of the
rights of the sick”. Nor should we forget the significant development achieved
in the area of assistance due to the emergence of new medical applications, of
a nursing service which is ever better qualified and of the phenomenon of
voluntary service, which has recently reached a high degree of competence.
2.However,
at the end of the second millennium we cannot say that humanity has done all
that is necessary to alleviate the immense burden of suffering which weighs on
individuals, families and entire societies.
On the
contrary, it seems that especially in this last century the river of human
pain, already swollen due to the frailty of human nature and the wound of
original sin, as well as the suffering inflicted by the mistakes of individuals
and of States, has broadened: I am thinking of the wars that have caused so
much bloodshed in this century, perhaps more than in any other in humanity’s
tormented history; I am thinking of the types of disease that are prevalent in
society such as drug dependency, AIDS, illnesses caused by the deterioration of
the big cities and the environment; I am thinking of the increase in organized
crime, both small- and large-scale, and of the proposals of euthanasia.
I have a
mental picture not only of the hospital beds in which so many of the sick are
lying, but also of the sufferings of refugees, orphaned children and the many
victims of social evils and poverty.
At the same
time, with the eclipse of faith, especially in the secularized world there is a
further serious cause of suffering, that of no longer being able to grasp the salvific meaning of pain and the comfort of eschatological
hope.
3.Sharing
in the joys and hopes, sorrows and anxieties of the people of every age, the
Church has constantly accompanied and sustained humanity in its struggle
against pain and its commitment to improve health. At the same time, she has
striven to reveal to mankind the meaning of suffering and the riches of the
Redemption brought by Christ the Saviour. History
records great men and women who, prompted by their desire to imitate Christ
through a deep love for their poor and suffering brethren, started countless
initiatives of social assistance, brightening the last two millenniums with
good works. Next to the Fathers of the
Church and the founders and foundresses of religious
institutes, how can we fail to wonder at and admire the countless people who,
in silence and humility, have given their lives in service to their sick neighbour, in many cases to the point of heroism? (cf. Vita consecrata,
n. 83). Daily
experience shows how the Church, inspired by the Gospel of charity, continues
to contribute with many works, hospitals, health-care structures and volunteer
organizations, to promoting health and to caring for the sick, paying special
attention to the most underprivileged in all parts of the world,
notwithstanding the cause of their suffering, whether voluntary or involuntary.
This
presence should be maintained and encouraged for the benefit of the precious
good of human health, looking carefully at all the inequalities and
contradictions in the world of health-care that still exist.
4.Indeed,
down the centuries, beside the light areas, shadows have obscured and still
obscure the overall picture of improvements in health care, many aspects of
which are truly fine. I am thinking in particular of the serious social
inequalities in access to health-care resources, which are still present in
vast areas of the world, especially in the countries of the South.
This unjust
inequality is more and more dramatically undermining the basic rights of the
person: entire populations do not even have the possibility of benefiting from
primary, basic medicines, while elsewhere even expensive medicines are widely
wasted and misused. And what can be said of the many brothers and sisters who
lack the minimum to appease their hunger and are subject to every kind of
disease? Not to mention the numerous wars which stain humanity with blood and
are spreading physical and psychological traumas of every kind, as well as
death.
5.With
regard to these scenarios, we must recognize that unfortunately, in many cases,
the economic, scientific and technological breakthroughs have not brought real
progress that is focused on the person and the inviolable dignity of every
human being. Even the achievements in the field of genetics, which are
fundamental in health care, especially for the protection of newborn life, can
become an opportunity for inadmissible choices, callous manipulation and
interests that contradict real development, often with devastating results. On
the one hand remarkable efforts are being made to prolong life and even to
procreate it artificially; but on the other, birth is not permitted to those
who have already been conceived, and the death of those no longer considered to
be of use is hastened. Furthermore:
while health is rightly appreciated with increasing initiatives to promote it,
at times reaching a sort of cult of the body and a hedonistic quest for
physical fitness, at the same time we are reduced to considering life as a mere
consumer good, setting a new scale of marginalization for the disabled, the
elderly and the terminally ill.
All these
contradictions and paradoxical situations stem from a lack of harmony on the
one hand, between the logic of well-being and the search for technological
progress, and the logic, on the other, of ethical values based on the dignity
of every human being.
6.On the
eve of the new millennium, it is hoped that “the purification of memory” will
also be promoted in the world of suffering and health, which will lead to
“recognizing the wrongs done by those who have borne or bear the name of
Christian” (Incarnationis
mysterium,
n. 11; cf. also Tertio millennio adveniente, nn. 33, 37, 51).
The ecclesial community is called to accept, in this field too, the invitation
to conversion which is linked to the celebration of the Holy Year. The process
of conversion and renewal will be helped if we continually raise our eyes to
the One who, “in the sacrament of the Eucharist ... took flesh in Mary’s womb
20 centuries ago, [and] continues to offer himself to humanity as the source of
divine life” (Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 55). The mystery of the Incarnation
means understanding life as a gift from God, to be looked after responsibly and
used for good: health is thus a positive attribute of life, to be sought for
the good of the person and of one’s neighbour.
However health is a “penultimate” good in the hierarchy of values, which should
be fostered and considered with a view to the total, and thus also spiritual,
good of the person.
7.In this
circumstance we turn our gaze in particular to the suffering and risen Christ.
In taking on the human condition, the Son of God accepted to live it in all its
aspects, including pain and death, fulfilling in his person the words he spoke
at the Last Supper: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends” (Jn
15:13). In celebrating the Eucharist, Christians proclaim and share in the
sacrifice of Christ, for “by his wounds [we] have been healed” (cf. 1 Pt 2:24) and uniting themselves with
him, “preserve in their own sufferings a very special particle of the infinite
treasure of the world’s redemption, and can share this treasure with others” (Salvifici doloris, n.
27).
The
imitation of Jesus, the suffering Servant, has led great saints and simple
believers to turn their illnesses and pain into a source of purification and
salvation for themselves and for others. What great prospects of personal
sanctification and cooperation for the salvation of the world does the path
marked out by Christ and by so many of his disciples open to our sick brothers
and sisters! It is a difficult path, because the human being does not discover
the meaning of suffering and death on his own, but it is always a possible path
with the help of Jesus, interior Master and Guide (cf. Salvifici doloris, nn.
26-27). Just as the Resurrection
transformed Christ’s wounds into a source of healing and salvation, so for
every sick person the light of the risen Christ is a confirmation that the way
of fidelity to God can triumph in the gift of self until the Cross and can
transform illness itself into a source of joy and resurrection. Is not this the
proclamation that echoes in hearts at every Eucharistic celebration when the
people proclaim:
“Christ has
died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again”? The sick, also sent out as labourers into the Lord’s vineyard (cf. Christifideles laici, n.
53), by their example can make an effective contribution to the evangelization
of a culture that tries to remove the experience of suffering by striving to
grasp its deep meaning with its intrinsic incentives to human and Christian
growth.
8.The
Jubilee also invites us to contemplate the face of Jesus, the divine Samaritan
of souls and bodies. By following the example of her divine Founder, the
Church, “from century to century ... has re-enacted the Gospel parable of the
Good Samaritan, revealing and communicating her healing love and the
consolation of Jesus Christ.... This came about through the untiring commitment
of the Christian community and all those who have taken care of the sick and
suffering ... as well as the skilled and generous service of health-care
workers” (Christifideles laici, n.
53). This commitment does not derive from specific social situations, nor
should it be understood as an optional or fortuitous act, but is an intransgressible response to Christ’s command: “he called
to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to
cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity” (Mt 10:1, cf. 7-8).
The service
rendered to the person who is suffering in body and soul takes its meaning from
the Eucharist, finding in it not only its source but also its norm. It was not
by chance that Jesus closely united the Eucharist with service (Jn 13:2-16),
asking the disciples to perpetuate in memory of him not only the “breaking of
the bread”, but also the “washing of the feet”.
9.The
example of Christ, the good Samaritan, must inspire the believer’s attitude,
prompting him to be “close” to his brothers and sisters who are suffering,
through respect, understanding, acceptance, tenderness, compassion and
gratuitousness. It is a question of fighting the indifference that makes
individuals and groups withdraw selfishly into themselves. To this end, “the
family, the school and other educational institutions must, if only for
humanitarian reasons, work perseveringly for the reawakening and refining of
that sensitivity towards one’s neighbour and his
suffering” (Salvifici doloris, n.
29). For the believer, this human sensitivity is expressed in the agape, that
is, in supernatural love, which brings one to love one’s neighbour
for love of God. In fact, guided by faith and surrounding with affectionate
care those who are afflicted by human suffering, the Church recognizes in them
the image of her poor and suffering Founder and is concerned to alleviate their
suffering, mindful of his words: “I was sick and you visited me” (Mt 25:36).
The example
of Jesus, the good Samaritan, not only spurs one to help the sick, but also to
do all one can to reintegrate him in society. For Christ, in fact, healing is
also this reintegration: just as sickness excludes the human being from the
community, so healing must bring him to rediscover his place in the family, in
the Church and in society.
I extend a
warm invitation to those involved professionally or voluntarily in the world of
health to fix their gaze on the divine Samaritan, so that their service can
become a prefiguration of definitive salvation and a
proclamation of new heavens and a new earth “in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pt 3:13).
10.Jesus
did not only treat and heal the sick, but he was also a tireless promoter of
health through his saving presence, teaching and action. His love for man was
expressed in relationships full of humanity, which led him to understand, to
show compassion and bring comfort, harmoniously combining tenderness and
strength. He was moved by the beauty of nature, he was sensitive to human
suffering, he fought evil and injustice. He faced the negative aspects of this
experience courageously and, fully aware of the implications, communicated the
certainty of a new world. In him, the human condition showed its face redeemed
and the deepest human aspirations found fulfillment.
He wants to
communicate this harmonious fullness of life to people today. His saving action
not only aims to meet the needs of human people, victims of their own limits
and errors, but to sustain their efforts for total self-fulfillment. He opens
the prospect of divine life to man: “I came that they may have life, and have
it abundantly” (Jn
10:10).
Called to
continue Jesus’ mission, the Church must seek to promote a full and ordered
life for everyone.
11.In the
context of the promotion of good health and quality of life correctly
understood, two duties deserve the Christian’s special attention.
First of
all the defence of life. In today’s world, many men
and women are striving for a better quality of life with respect for life
itself and are reflecting on the ethics of life so as to dispel the confusion
of values that sometimes exists in today’s culture. As I recalled in my
Encyclical Evangelium vitae, “significant is the reawakening
of an ethical reflection on issues affecting life. The emergence and ever more widespread
development of bioethics is promoting more reflection and dialogue - between
believers and non-believers, as well as between followers of different
religions - on ethical problems, including fundamental issues pertaining to
human life” (n. 27). However, beside
these there are many, unfortunately, who are engaged in promoting a worrying
culture of death, spreading a mentality imbued with selfishness and hedonistic
materialism, and with the social and legal sanction of the suppression of
life. At the root of this culture there
is often a Promethean attitude which leads people to think that “they can
control life and death by taking the decisions about them into their own hands.
What really happens in this case is that the individual is overcome and crushed
by a death deprived of any prospect of meaning or hope” (Evangelium vitae, n. 15). When science and medical practice risk losing sight
of their inherent ethical dimension, health-care professionals “can be strongly
tempted at times to become manipulators of life, or even agents of death” (ibid., n. 89).
12.In this
context, believers are called to develop the insight of faith as they look at
the sublime and mysterious value of life, even when it seems frail and
vulnerable. “This outlook does not give in to discouragement when confronted by
those who are sick, suffering, outcast or at death’s door. Instead, in all
these situations it feels challenged to find meaning, and precisely in these
circumstances it is open to perceiving in the face of every person a call to
encounter, dialogue and solidarity” (ibid.,
n. 83).
This task
especially involves health professionals: doctors, pharmacists, nurses,
chaplains, men and women religious, administrators and volunteer workers who,
by virtue of their profession, are called in a special capacity to be guardians
of human life. However, it also calls into question every other human being,
starting with the relatives of the sick person. They know that “the request
which arises from the human heart in the supreme confrontation with suffering
and death, especially when faced with the temptation to give up in utter
desperation, is above all a request for companionship, sympathy and support in
the time of trial. It is a plea for help to keep on hoping when all human hopes
fail” (ibid., n. 67).
13.The
second duty which Christians cannot shirk concerns the promotion of a health
worthy of the human being. In our society there is a risk of making health an
idol to which every other value is subservient. The Christian vision of the
human being opposes a notion of health reduced to pure, exuberant vitality and
satisfaction with one’s own physical fitness, far removed from any real
consideration of suffering. This view, ignoring the person’s spiritual and
social dimensions, ends by jeopardizing his true good. Precisely because health
is not limited to biological perfection, life lived in suffering also offers
room for growth and self-fulfillment, and opens the way to discovering new
values.
This vision
of health, based on an anthropology that respects the whole person, far from
being identified with the mere absence of illness, strives to achieve a fuller
harmony and healthy balance on the physical, psychological, spiritual and
social level. In this perspective, the person himself is called to mobilize all
his available energies to fulfill his own vocation and for the good of others.
14.This
model of health requires that the Church and society create an ecology worthy
of man. The environment, in fact, is connected with the health of the
individual and of the population: it constitutes the human being’s “home” and
the complex of resources entrusted to his care and stewardship, “the garden to
be tended and the field to be cultivated”. But the external ecology of the person
must be combined with an interior, moral ecology, the only one which is fitting
for a proper concept of health.
Considered
in its entirety, human health thus becomes an attribute of life, a resource for
the service of one’s neighbour and openness to salvation.
15.In the
Jubilee year of the Lord’s favour - “a year of the
remission of sins and of the punishment due to them, a year of reconciliation
between disputing parties, a year of manifold conversions and of sacramental
and extra-sacramental penance” (Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 14)
- I invite pastors, priests, men and women religious, the faithful and people
of goodwill courageously to face the challenges that threaten the world of
suffering and health.
May the
International Eucharistic Congress, which will be celebrated in Rome in 2000,
become the ideal centre, radiating prayers and initiatives that can make the
divine Samaritan’s presence alive and active in the world of health care.
I fervently
hope that through the contribution of our brothers and sisters in all the
Christian Churches, the celebration of the Jubilee of the Year 2000 will mark
the development of ecumenical collaboration in loving service to the sick, so
as to witness clearly to everyone to the search for unity on the concrete path
of charity.
I address a
specific appeal to the international political, social and health-care
organizations in every part of the world to be convincing promoters of concrete
projects to fight all that is harmful to the dignity and health of the person.
May we be
accompanied in the process of active participation in the lives of our sick
brothers and sisters by the Virgin Mother who at the foot of the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25) shared
the sufferings of her Son and, with her expert experience of suffering, offers
her constant and loving protection to those who are suffering in mind and body
the limits and wounds of the human condition.
I entrust
the sick and all those who are close to them to her, Health of the sick and
Queen of peace, so that with her motherly intercession she will help them to
build the civilization of love.
With these hopes, I impart a special Apostolic
Blessing to everyone.