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MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
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FOR
THE EIGHTEENTH WORLD DAY OF THE SICK
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The 18th World Day of the Sick will be celebrated in the Vatican
Basilica next 11 February, the liturgical Memorial of Our Lady
of Lourdes. Its felicitous coincidence with the 25th anniversary
of the Institution of the Pontifical Council for Health-Care Workers
is another reason to thank God for the ground covered so far in
the sector of the pastoral care of health. I sincerely hope that
this event will be an opportunity to give a more generous apostolic
impetus to the service of the sick and of those who look after
them.
With the annual World Day of the Sick, the Church intends to carry
out a far-reaching operation, raising the ecclesial community's
awareness to the importance of pastoral service in the vast world
of health care. This service is an integral part of the Church's
role since it is engraved in Christ's saving mission itself. He,
the divine Doctor, "went about doing good and healing all
that were oppressed by the devil" (Acts 10: 38). In the mystery
of his Passion, death and Resurrection, human suffering takes
on meaning and the fullness of light. In his Apostolic Letter
Salvifici doloris, the Servant of God John Paul II offers enlightening
words in this regard. "Human suffering, has reached its culmination
in the Passion of Christ", he wrote. "And at the same
time it has entered into a completely new dimension and a new
order: it has been linked to love... to that love which creates
good, also drawing it out from evil by means of suffering, just
as the supreme good of the Redemption of the world was drawn from
the Cross of Christ, and from that Cross constantly takes its
beginning. The Cross of Christ has become a source from which
flow rivers of living water" (n. 18).
At the Last Supper, before returning to the Father, the Lord Jesus
knelt to wash the Apostles' feet, anticipating the supreme act
of love on the Cross. With this act he invited his disciples to
enter into the same logic of love that is given especially to
the lowliest and to the needy (cf. Jn 13: 12-17). Following his
example, every Christian is called to relive, in different and
ever new contexts, the Parable of the Good Samaritan who, passing
by a man whom robbers had left half-dead by the roadside, "saw
him and had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds,
pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and
brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day
he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying,
"Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay
you when I come back'" (cf. Lk 10: 33-35).
At the end of the parable, Jesus said: "Go and do likewise"
(Lk 10: 37). With these words he is also addressing us. Jesus
exhorts us to bend over the physical and mental wounds of so many
of our brothers and sisters whom we meet on the highways of the
world. He helps us to understand that with God's grace, accepted
and lived out in our daily life, the experience of sickness and
suffering can become a school of hope. In truth, as I said in
the Encyclical Spe salvi, "It is not by sidestepping or fleeing
from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity
for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through
union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love" (n. 37).
The Second Ecumenical Vatican Council had already recalled the
Church's important task of caring for human suffering. In the
Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium we read that "Christ
was sent by the Father "to bring good news to the poor...
to heal the contrite of heart' (Lk 4: 18), "to seek and to
save what was lost' (Lk 19: 10).... Similarly, the Church encompasses
with her love all those who are afflicted by human misery and
she recognizes in those who are poor and who suffer, the image
of her poor and suffering Founder. She does all in her power to
relieve their need and in them she strives to serve Christ"
(n. 8). The ecclesial community's humanitarian and spiritual action
for the sick and the suffering has been expressed down the centuries
in many forms and health-care structures, also of an institutional
character. I would like here to recall those directly managed
by the dioceses and those born from the generosity of various
religious Institutes. It is a precious "patrimony" that
corresponds with the fact that "love... needs to be organized
if it is to be an ordered service to the community" (Encyclical
Deus caritas est, n. 20). The creation of the Pontifical Council
for Health-Care Workers 25 years ago complies with the Church's
solicitude for the world of health care. And I am anxious to add
that at this moment in history and culture we are feeling even
more acutely the need for an attentive and far-reaching ecclesial
presence beside the sick, as well as a presence in society that
can effectively pass on the Gospel values that safeguard human
life in all its phases, from its conception to its natural end.
I would like here to take up the Message to the Poor, the Sick,
and the Suffering which the Council Fathers addressed to the world
at the end of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council: "All
of you who feel heavily the weight of the Cross" they said,
"you who weep... you the unknown victims of suffering, take
courage. You are the preferred children of the Kingdom of God,
the Kingdom of hope, happiness, and life. You are the brothers
of the suffering Christ, and with him, if you wish, you are saving
the world" (The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott,
sj). I warmly thank those who, every day, "serve the sick
and the suffering", so that "the apostolate of God's
mercy may ever more effectively respond to people's expectations
and needs" (cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution Pastor
Bonus, Art. 152).
In this Year for Priests, my thoughts turn in particular to you,
dear priests, "ministers of the sick", signs and instruments
of Christ's compassion who must reach out to every person marked
by suffering. I ask you, dear presbyters, to spare no effort in
giving them care and comfort. Time spent beside those who are
put to the test may bear fruits of grace for all the other dimensions
of pastoral care. Lastly I address you, dear sick people and I
ask you to pray and to offer your suffering up for priests, so
that they may continue to be faithful to their vocation and that
their ministry may be rich in spiritual fruits for the benefit
of the whole Church.
With these sentiments, I implore, for the sick, as well as for
all who nurse them, the maternal protection of Mary Salus Infirmorum,
and I wholeheartedly impart the Apostolic Blessing to all.
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From
the Vatican, 22 November 2009, Solemnity of Christ the King.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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