February 11, Ntra. Mrs. de Lourdes, 33a. World day of the patient. Pope Francis message. – Heriberto Bodeant

Hope does not disappoint and makes us strong in tribulation.
Message of the Holy Father Francisco on the occasion of the 33rd World Day of the patient, February 11, 2025.
Dear brothers and sisters, we celebrated the 33rd World Day of the patient in the 2025 Jubilee Year,
in which the Church invites us to make pilgrims of hope.
In this we are accompanied by the Word of God, which through St. Paul gives us a great message of encouragement.
Hope does not disappoint, moreover, it makes us strong in tribulation.
They are comforting expressions, but that can raise some questions, especially those that suffer.
For example, how to remain strong when we suffer in our own meat,
Invalidants who may require treatments whose costs go beyond our possibilities.
How to do it when, in addition to our suffering, we see those who love us suffer
and that even while being at our side they feel helpless for not being able to help us.
In all these situations we feel the need for superior support.
We need the help of God, his grace, his providence, of that force that is the gift of his spirit.
Let us be arrested for a moment to reflect on the presence of God who remains close to whoever suffers,
In particular, under three aspects that characterize it, the encounter, the gift and sharing.
The encounter.
Jesus, when he sent the 72 disciples on a mission, urged them to tell the sick,
The kingdom of God is close to you.
He specifically asked them to understand that also the disease,
Even when it is painful and difficult to understand, it is an opportunity to meet the Lord.
At the time of the disease, in effect, if on the one hand we experience all our fragility as creatures,
Physics, psychological and spiritual, on the other hand we feel the closeness and compassion of God,
that in Jesus has shared our sufferings.
He does not abandon us and many times surprises us with the gift of a determination
that we would never have thought to have and that we would never have found for ourselves.
The disease then becomes the occasion of a meeting that transforms us
In the finding of an unwavering rock we can hold to face the storms of life,
An experience that even in sacrifice makes us stronger,
Because it makes us more aware that we are not alone.
That is why it is said that pain always carries a mystery of salvation,
because it makes experiencing the comfort that comes from God in a close and real way
until you know the fullness of the Gospel with all its promises and its life.
And this leads us to the second point of reflection, the gift.
Certainly never as in suffering we realize that all hope comes from the Lord
And that is why it is, above all, a gift that we have to welcome and cultivate,
remaining faithful to the fidelity of God, according to the beautiful expression of Madeleine of the over.
For the rest, only in the resurrection of Christ,
Our destinations find their place on the infinite horizon.