A Reflection in the Margins of the Message of Pope Francis for the Twenty-Second World Day of the Sick

Fr. Augusto Chendi, M.I.

Under-Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care)

On the occasion of the World Day of the Sick, which will be celebrated on 11 February next, the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin of Lourdes, the Holy Father has sent the whole of the Church a Message which, with this twenty-second edition, proposes and explores the theme: ‘Faith and Charity: “We Ought to Lay Down Our Lives for One Another” (1 Jn 3:16)’.

The tandem of faith and charity, chosen by Pope Francis, seems unusual if addressed to sick people as the first recipients of this Message. Indeed, they are usually understood more as the recipients of faith, which becomes industrious and concrete in charity. However, sick people as well, because of the taking on of suffering and illness by Jesus, who transformed them and reduced them at an inner level, can be the authors of unconditional self-giving to the other for love of the Son of God.

Their sufferings and tribulations, therefore, illumined and supported by faith, are transformed into strength to love until the end, to love enemies as well, so that hatred, incomprehension and, even worse, indifference no longer have the last and final world. ‘The proof of authentic faith in Christ’ – these are words contained in the Message of Pope Francis – ‘is self-giving and the spreading of love for our neighbours, especially for those who do not merit it, for the suffering and for the marginalised’.

No less important, however, remains consistency in Christian witness to faith, required of those who in a totally singular way bend down in an action of merciful love in front of their sick, abandoned and marginalised neighbours. Such is the array of health-care professionals, family relatives, members of the variegated world of voluntary work, but also priests in parishes, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, ordinary lay people…who through baptism and confirmation are called and enabled to conform themselves to Christ, the Good Samaritan, mixing with their daily and silent living ‘laying down our lives for one another’ (cf. 1 Jn 3:16).

Not a dramatic gesture but one full of professionalism and impassioned, attentive and respectful nearness which bears within it the intimate mission entrusted by Jesus to the Church: ‘he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick’ (Lk 9:2). In such a context the world of health as a whole, which is complex because of the people involved and complementary in reciprocal responsibilities, is seen by Pope Francis as an irreplaceable and valuable instrument for evangelisation. Indeed, the Holy Father observes in his Message: ‘When we draw near with tender love to those in need of care, we bring hope and God’s smile to the contradictions of the world. When generous devotion to others becomes the hallmark of our actions, we give way to the Heart of Christ and bask in its warmth, and thus contribute to the coming of God’s Kingdom’.

This is certainly an arduous undertaking but at the same time it is an exalting one that impresses a new impulse on the world of health and pastoral care in health, watched over by she who beneath the cross was entrusted to us as our Mother: sick people and health-care workers, like all the component parts of the world of health, are located – according to the words of Pope Francis – in a privileged and exclusive space: ‘Those who stand with Mary beneath the cross learn to love as Jesus does’.

Unload here the presentation of the World Day of the Sick by the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care), His Excellency  Monsignor Zygmunt Zimowski

Read here the press notices