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Pope Francis: Pain always carries with it a mystery of salvation

Pope Francis recalled that “pain always carries with it a mystery of salvation” and claimed that illness, even when it is “painful and difficult to understand,” is an opportunity to “encounter the Lord” in his message for the 33rd World Day of the Sick, published this Monday, January 27, but celebrated next February 11.

“In the time of illness, in fact, if on the one hand we experience all our fragility as creatures—physical, psychological and spiritual—on the other hand, we feel the closeness and compassion of God, who in Jesus has shared our sufferings.” , assures the Pontiff in the text signed on January 14.

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The Holy Father recognizes that the disease can raise some questions.

For example: “How can we stay strong when we first suffer serious, disabling illnesses that may require treatments whose costs go beyond our means? How can we do it when, in addition to our suffering, we see those who love us suffer and who, even being by our side, feel helpless for not being able to help us?

However, he emphasizes that in these situations the need for “higher support” is felt; that is, “the help of God, of his grace, of his Providence and of that strength that is the gift of his Spirit.”

For this reason, it invites Catholics to reflect on the presence of God that remains “close to those who suffer”, in particular under three aspects that characterize it: encounter, gift and sharing.

Regarding the first concept, the encounter, he emphasizes that God not only does not abandon, but often surprises the sick with the “gift of a determination that we would never have thought we would have, and that we would never have found for ourselves.”

Illness, he details, is the discovery of an “unbreakable rock to which we can cling 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.”

In his message for next February 11 on the subject Hope does not disappoint and makes us strong in tribulation He also assures that the disease “makes us experience the comfort that comes from God in a close and real way, until we know the fullness of the Gospel with all its promises and its life.”

Thus, he assures that through suffering people realize “that all hope comes from the Lord.” And he adds: “Only in the resurrection of Christ do our destinies find their place in the infinite horizon of eternity.”

For this reason, the Holy Father calls to share with Him the “confusion”, the “concerns” and “disillusionments”.

Pope Francis then notes how places where suffering “are often places of exchange” and “of mutual enrichment.”

“How many times, at the bedside of a sick person, do we learn to wait! How many times, being close to those who suffer, do we learn to believe! How many times, by bowing before the needy, love is discovered!” he writes.

Likewise, it vindicates the work of the “angels” of hope who act as “messengers of God, one for another.”

Thus, he cites this community: the sick, the doctors, the nurses, the family members, the friends, the priests, the religious men and women.

In this sense, he points out the importance of “knowing how to discover the beauty and magnitude of these encounters of grace” for which he asks “to keep in the heart the kind smile of a health worker, the grateful and trusting look of a patient, the face understanding and attentiveness of a doctor or a volunteer.”

“They are all lights to be treasured because, even in the darkness of trial, they not only give strength, but teach the true flavor of life, in love and proximity,” he continues.

Finally, he focuses on those who assist those who suffer, “whose voice goes far beyond the rooms and beds of the sanatoriums where they are, stimulating and encouraging (…) in a harmony that is sometimes difficult to achieve, but precisely for that reason, very sweet and strong, capable of bringing light and warmth where it is needed most.”

The World Day of the Sick was instituted in 1992 by Saint John Paul II, who established that it be celebrated every February 11, in the liturgical memory of the Virgin of Lourdes.



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