HOMILY FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST

Inauguration of the Academic Year 2017-2018

The Thirtieth Anniversary of the Foundation of the Camillianum

THE SUFFERING THAT BRINGS HOPE TO THE HUMAN HEART AND TO HUMANITY!

Fr. Leocir PESSINI

Superior General of the Order of Camillians

General Moderator of the Camillianum

Distinguished academic community of the Camillianum – President, lecturers, students, other personnel,

Esteemed friends of the Order and the Camillian charism,

Dear participants of the conference to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of the Camillianum,

A warm and fraternal welcome to everyone in the context of the inauguration of the new academic year 2017-2018!

We are experiencing together, with joy and in fraternity, the opening of this day which for us Camillian religious has a very special significance: to thank the Lord for the thirty years of academic activity that was planned – and has been engaged in – by our International Institute for the Theology of Pastoral Care in Health. Since the year 2012 this Institute has been a part of the Faculty of Sacred Theology of the Pontifical Lateran University.

From the biblical readings that we have just proclaimed and listened to in the liturgy of the Word of today, it seems to me a beam of light has come that offers us clarity and meaning by which to begin and enter into the celebratory and intellectual dimension of this academic day.

I intend to offer a pathway of thoughts and reflections organised around four basic points:

1. A brief summary of the message of Holy Scripture of today.
2. Recalling some of the essential elements of the Camillian charism and the Camillian ministry of mercy in the world of suffering.
3. Some nuances of the ecclesial messages that are contained in the apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris of Pope St. John Paul II (11 February 1984) and in the encyclical letter Spe Salvi of Pope Benedict XVI (30 November 2007).
4. An expression of gratitude to all the protagonists of this history of thirty years of teaching at the

Camillianum.

Let us open the doors of the mysterious world of suffering through what is offered by the biblical-theological insights of today.

1. Biblical-Theological Insights

Let us remember in summarising terms the biblical texts of today’s liturgy:

• First reading (Rom 8:12-17). St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans (Rom 8:12-17) observes that all those who live ‘led by the Spirit of God’ are ‘sons of God’. We have not received a spirit as slaves: the Spirit makes us adopted Children, and through him we say ‘Abba! Father’. If we are children, then we are also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
• Psalm 67. God in his holy habitation is the Father of orphans and the defender of widows. Day after day He brings us salvation. Our God is a God who saves; to the Lord belong the doors of death.
• Gospel (Lk 13:10-17). Luke, the evangelist physician, narrates to us a fragment of the work of Jesus who takes the initiative and heals a poor woman with a bent back ‘whom a spirit had kept infirm for eighteen years’ on the Sabbath day. Jesus, as an excellent healer, applies the basic recommendations of a good help relationship (‘rites’) and enters the scene: ‘he saw her, called her to him and said to her: woman you are freed of your illness. He laid her hands upon her and immediately she stood upright and gave glory to God’. Jesus was confronted by the head of the synagogue ‘who was indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath’! With great determination Jesus offered the absolute priority of the suffering and infirm person (‘this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years’) over the Jewish religious tradition of the Sabbath, freeing her from infirmity – whether a mental illness or diabolical possession. Jesus through his person healed her and freed her from the Evil One! We may imagine how much suffering, how much prostration and how much humiliation this woman went through during those eighteen years of her frailty. We may also imagine the level of freedom and dignity that was offered to her by Jesus’s action which restored her life to her, as well as dignity and health!

In a healthy theology of health, all of us have learnt that there always exists a cry that asks for salvation. One of the principal reasons that leads pilgrims to go to Marian sanctuaries in the world (Lourdes, Fatima, Aparecida, Loreto…) is the simple but deep wish to look for health and for salvation from dangers, illness, pain and suffering in life.

We will now see some essential elements of the Camillian charism and the Camillian ministry of mercy in the world of suffering which can inspire and direct our lives.

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