Vatican City, 10 June 2015 (VIS) –
Illness, a common experience in the life of families from childhood
until advanced age, was the theme of the Pope's catechesis during
this week's Wednesday general audience. “The family has always been
the 'closest hospital'. And still, today, in many parts of the world,
the hospital is a privilege enjoyed by few, and is often far away.
Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and grandparents provide care and
help heal the sick”.
In the Gospel there are many encounters
between Jesus and the sick, and his commitment to caring for them.
Christ “presents himself publicly as one who fights against
sickness and who has come to cure man of every ill: ills of the
spirit and of the body”. The Pope remarked that the scene in the
Gospel of Mark – “that evening at sundown they brought to him all
who were sick or oppressed by demons” – is “truly moving. …
If I think of today's great cities, I ask myself, where are the doors
before which we can bring the sick, hoping they will be healed. Jesus
never withdrew from their care, He never passed them by, He never
turned away. And when a father or a mother, or even simply friends
brought an invalid before Him, for Him to touch and heal, He wasted
no time; healing came before the law, even sacred laws such as rest
on the Sabbath”.
Jesus sent His disciples to fulfil the
same task and He gave them the power to heal. “We must keep in mind
what He said to the disciples in the episode of the man born blind.
The disciples – with the blind man before them – debated about
who had sinned, him or his parents, to provoke his blindness. The
Lord said clearly: neither him nor his parents; 'but that the works
of God might be displayed in him'. And He healed him. Here is the
glory of God! Here is the task of the Church! To help the sick, not
to get lost in talk. To help, console, alleviate, always to be near:
this is her task”.
“The Church invites us to continual
prayer for our dear ones who are sick, and prayer for them must never
be lacking. Rather, we must pray more, both personally and as a
community. … Faced with sickness, difficulties can also arise in
the family as a result of human weakness. But in general illness
strengthens family bonds. And I think of how important it is to
educate children, starting from infancy, on the importance of
solidarity in times of sickness. An education that shelters them from
sensitivity to human sickness hardens the heart and anaesthetises the
young to the suffering of others, rendering them incapable of facing
up to suffering and living the experience of limits”.
“The weakness and suffering of our
most loved ones … can be … a school of life … and especially
when illness is accompanied by prayer and the fraternal, affectionate
closeness of families. The Christian community is well aware that the
family, during the trials of sickness, must not be left alone. …
This Christian closeness of family to family, is a true treasure for
a parish: a treasure of wisdom, that helps families in difficult
moments and enables them to understand the Kingdom of God more
clearly than through words”.
No comments:
Post a Comment