‘By his wounds you have been
healed’ (1 Pt 2:24)
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Every year, on the day of the
memorial of the Blessed Virgin of Lourdes, which
is celebrated on 11 February, the Church proposes
the World Day of the Sick. This event, as the
venerable John Paul II wanted, becomes a propitious
occasion to reflect upon the mystery of suffering
and above all to make our communities and civil
society more sensitive to our sick brothers and
sisters. If every man is our brother, much more
must the sick, the suffering and those in need
of care be, at the centre of our attention, so
that none of them feels forgotten or emarginated;
indeed, ‘the true measure of humanity is essentially
determined in relationship to suffering and to
the sufferer. This holds true both for the individual
and for society. A society unable to accept its
suffering members and incapable of helping to
share their suffering and to bear it inwardly
through “com-passion” is a cruel and inhuman society’
(Encyclical letter Spe salvi, n. 38). The initiatives
that will be organised in each diocese on the
occasion of this Day should be a stimulus to make
care for the suffering increasingly effective,
also in view of the solemn celebration that will
take place in 2013 at the Marian sanctuary of
Altötting in Germany.
1. I still have
in my heart the moment when, during the course
of the pastoral visit to Turin, I was able to
pause in reflection and prayer before the Holy
Shroud, before that suffering face, which invites
us to reflect on He who took upon himself the
passion of man, of every time and place, even
our sufferings, our difficulties, our sins. How
many faithful, during the course of history, have
passed in front of that burial cloth, which enveloped
the body of a crucified man, and which completely
corresponds to what the Gospels hand down to us
about the passion and death of Jesus! To contemplate
it is an invitation to reflect upon what St. Peter
writes: ‘By his wounds you have been healed’ (1
Pt 2:24). The Son of God suffered, died, but rose
again, and precisely because of this those wounds
become the sign of our redemption, of forgiveness
and reconciliation with the Father; however they
also become a test for the faith of the disciples
and our faith: every time that the Lord speaks
about his passion and death, they do not understand,
they reject it, they oppose it. For them, as for
us, suffering is always charged with mystery,
difficult to accept and to bear. The two disciples
of Emmaus walk sadly because of the events that
had taken place in those days in Jerusalem, and
only when the Risen One walks along the road with
them do they open up to a new vision (cf. Lk 24:13-31).
Even the apostle Thomas manifests the difficulty
of believing in the way of redemptive passion:
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,
and put my finger in the mark of the nails and
put my hand into his side, I will not believe”
(Jn 20:25). But before Christ who shows his wounds,
his response is transformed into a moving profession
of faith: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28). What
was at first an insurmountable obstacle, because
it was a sign of Jesus’ apparent failure, becomes,
in the encounter with the Risen One, proof of
a victorious love: ‘Only a God who loves us to
the extent of taking upon himself our wounds and
our pain, especially innocent suffering, is worthy
of faith.’ (Urbi et Orbi Message, Easter 2007).
2. Dear sick
and suffering, it is precisely through the wounds
of Christ that we are able to see, with eyes of
hope, all the evils that afflict humanity. In
rising again, the Lord did not remove suffering
and evil from the world, but he defeated them
at their root. He opposed the arrogance of Evil
with the omnipotence of his Love. He has shown
us, therefore, that the way of peace and joy is
Love: “Just as I have loved you, you also should
love one another” (Jn 13:34). Christ, victor over
death, is alive in our midst. And while with St.
Thomas we also say “My Lord and my God!”, let
us follow our Master in readiness to spend our
lives for our brothers and sisters (cf. 1 Jn 3:16),
becoming messengers of a joy that does not fear
pain, the joy of the Resurrection.
St. Bernard observed: ‘God cannot suffer but He
can suffer with’. God, who is Truth and Love in
person, wanted to suffer for us and with us; He
became man so that He could suffer with man, in
a real way, in flesh and blood. To every human
suffering, therefore, there has entered One who
shares suffering and endurance; in all suffering
con-solatio is diffused, the consolation of God’s
participating love so as to make the star of hope
rise (cf. Encyclical letter Spe salvi, n. 39).
I repeat this message to you,
dear brothers and sisters, so that you may be
witnesses to it through your suffering, your lives
and your faith.
3. Looking forward
to the appointment of Madrid, in August 2011,
for the World Youth Day, I would also like to
address a special thought to young people, especially
those who live the experience of illness. Often
the Passion, the Cross of Jesus, generate fear
because they seem to be the negation of life.
In reality, it is exactly the contrary! The Cross
is God’s ‘yes’ to mankind, the highest and most
intense expression of his love and the source
from which flows eternal life. From the pierced
heart of Jesus this divine life flowed. He alone
is capable of liberating the world from evil and
making his Kingdom of justice, peace and love,
to which we all aspire, grow (cf. Message for
the World Youth Day 2011, n. 3). Dear young people,
learn to ‘see’ and to ‘meet’ Jesus in the Eucharist,
where he is present in a real way for us, to the
point of making himself food for our journey,
but know how to recognise and serve him also in
the poor, in the sick, in our brothers and sisters
who are suffering and in difficulty, who need
your help (cf. ibid., n. 4). To all you young
people, both sick and healthy, I repeat my invitation
to create bridges of love and solidarity so that
nobody feels alone but near to God and part of
the great family of his children (cf. General
Audience, 15 November 2006).
4. When contemplating
the wounds of Jesus our gaze turns to his most
sacred Heart, in which God’s love manifests itself
in a supreme way. The Sacred Heart is Christ crucified,
with the side opened by the lance from which flowed
blood and water (cf. Jn 19:34), ‘symbol of the
sacraments of the Church, so that all men, drawn
to the Heart of the Saviour, might drink with
joy from the perennial fountain of salvation’
(Roman Missal, Preface for the Solemnity of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus). Especially you, dear sick
people, feel the nearness of this Heart full of
love and draw with faith and joy from this source,
praying: ‘Water of the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me. O good Jesus,
hear my prayers. In your wounds, hide me’ (Prayer
of St. Ignatius of Loyola).
5. At the end
of this Message of mine for the next World Day
of the Sick, I would like to express my affection
to each and everyone, feeling myself a participant
in the sufferings and hopes that you live every
day in union with the crucified and risen Christ,
so that he gives you peace and healing of heart.
Together with him may the Virgin Mary, whom we
invoke with trust as Health of the Sick and Consoler
of the Suffering, keep watch at your side! At
the foot of the Cross the prophecy of Simon was
fulfilled for her: her heart as a Mother was pierced
(cf. Lk 2:35). From the depths of her pain, a
participation in that of her Son, Mary is made
capable of accepting the new mission: to become
the Mother of Christ in his members. At the hour
of the Cross, Jesus presents to her each of his
disciples, saying: “Behold your son” (cf. Jn 19:26-27).
Her maternal compassion for the Son becomes maternal
compassion for each one of us in our daily sufferings
(cf. Homily at Lourdes, 15 September 2008).
Dear brothers and sisters, on
this World Day of the Sick, I also invite the
authorities to invest more and more in health-care
structures that provide help and support to the
suffering, above all the poorest and most in need,
and addressing my thoughts to all dioceses I send
an affectionate greeting to bishops, priests,
consecrated people, seminarians, health-care workers,
volunteers and all those who dedicate themselves
with love to treating and relieving the wounds
of every sick brother and sister in hospitals
or nursing homes and in families: in the faces
of the sick you should know how to see always
the Face of faces: that of Christ.
I assure you all that I will
remember you in my prayers, as I bestow upon you
my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 21 November 2010, the feast
of Christ the King of the Universe.
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
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