Today I greet you in the name of
Jesus. I thank all of you for the welcome you have given me. I
want you to know how I have looked forward to this meeting with
you, especially with those of you who are sick, disabled or
infirm. I myself have had a share in suffering and I have known
the physical weakness that comes with injury and sickness.
It is precisely because I have experienced
suffering that I am able to affirm with ever greater conviction
what Saint Paul says in the second reading: "neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8,38-39).
Dear friends, there is no force or
power that can block God's love for you. Sickness and suffering
seem to contradict all that is worthy, all that is desired by
man. And yet no disease, no injury, no infirmity can ever
deprive you of your dignity as children of God, as brothers and
sisters of Jesus Christ.
By his dying on the Cross, Christ shows
us how to make sense of our suffering. In his passion we find
the inspiration and strength to turn away from any temptation to
resentment and grow through pain into new life.
Suffering is an invitation to be more
like the Son in doing the Father's will. It offers us an
opportunity to imitate Christ who died to redeem mankind from
sin. Thus the Father has disposed that suffering can enrich the
individual and the whole Church.
We acknowledge that the Anointing of
the Sick is for the benefit of the whole person. We find this
point demonstrated in the liturgical texts of the sacramental
celebration: "Make this oil a remedy for all who are anointed
with it; heal them in body, in soul and in spirit, and deliver
them from every affliction."
The anointing is therefore a source of
strength for both the soul and the body. The prayer of the
Church asks that sin and the remnants of sin be taken away (cf.
DS 1969). It also implores a restoration of health, but
always in order that bodily healing may bring greater union with
God through the increase of grace.
In her teaching on this sacrament, the
Church passes on the truth contained in our first reading from
Saint James: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders
of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil
in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the
sick man and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed
sins, he will be forgiven" (James 5,14-15).
This sacrament should be approached in
a spirit of great confidence, like the leper in the Gospel that
has just been proclaimed. Even the desperateness of the man's
condition did not stop him from approaching Jesus with trust. We
too must believe in Christ's healing love and reaffirm that
nothing will separate us from that love. Surely Jesus wishes to
say: "I will; be clean" (Mt. 8,3); be healed; be strong; be
saved.
My dear brothers and sisters, as you
live the Passion of Christ you strengthen the Church by the
witness of your faith. You proclaim by your patience, your
endurance and your joy the mystery of Christ's redeeming power.
You will find the crucified Lord in the midst of your sickness
and suffering.
As Veronica ministered to Christ on his
way to Calvary, so Christians have accepted the care of those in
pain and sorrow as privileged opportunities to minister to
Christ himself. I commend and bless all those who work for the
sick in hospitals, residential homes and centers of care for the
dying.
I would like to say to you doctors,
nurses, chaplains and all other hospital staff: Yours is a noble
vocation. Remember it is Christ to whom you minister in the
sufferings of your brothers and sisters.
I support with all my heart those who
recognize and defend the law of God which governs human life. We
must never forget that every person, from the moment of
conception to the last breath, is a unique child of God and has
a right to life. This right should be defended by the attentive
care of the medical and nursing professions and by the
protection of the law. Every human life is willed by our
heavenly Father and is a part of his loving plan.
No State has the right to contradict
moral values which are rooted in the nature of man himself.
These values are the precious heritage of civilization. If
society begins to deny the worth of any individual or to
subordinate the human person to pragmatic or utilitarian
considerations, it begins to destroy the defenses that safeguard
its own fundamental values.
Today I make an urgent plea to this
nation. Do not neglect your sick and elderly. Do not turn away
from the handicapped and the dying. Do not push them to the
margins of society. For if you do, you will fail to understand
that they represent an important truth. The sick, the elderly,
the handicapped and the dying teach us that weakness is a
creative part of human living, and that suffering can be
embraced with no loss of dignity. Without the presence of these
people in your midst you might be tempted to think of health,
strength and power as the only important values to be pursued in
life. But the wisdom of Christ and the power of Christ are to be
seen in the weakness of those who share his sufferings.
Let us keep the sick and the
handicapped at the center of our lives. Let us treasure them and
recognize with gratitude the debt we owe them. We begin by
imagining that we are giving to them; we end by realizing that
they have enriched us.
May God bless and comfort all who
suffer. And may Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world and healer
of the sick, make his light shine through human weakness as a
beacon for us and for all mankind. Amen.
Taken form http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2seven.htm |