ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 8 February 2015
Dear
Brothers and Sisters, Good morning,
Today’s Gospel (cf. Mk 1:29-39) presents us Jesus who,
after having preached in the Synagogue on the Sabbath, heals many sick people.
Preaching and healing: this was Jesus’ principle activity in his public
ministry. With his preaching he proclaims the Kingdom of God, and with his
healing he shows that it is near, that the Kingdom of God is in our midst.
Entering the house of Simon Peter, Jesus sees that his
mother-in-law is in bed with a fever; he immediately takes her by the hand,
heals her, and raises her. After sunset, since the Sabbath is over the people
can go out and bring the sick to Him; He heals a multitude of people afflicted
with maladies of every kind: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Having
come to earth to proclaim and to realize the salvation of the whole man and of
all people, Jesus shows a particular predilection for those who are wounded in
body and in spirit: the poor, the sinners, the possessed, the sick, the
marginalized. Thus, He reveals Himself as a doctor both of souls and of bodies,
the Good Samaritan of man. He is the true Saviour: Jesus saves, Jesus cures,
Jesus heals.
The reality of Christ’s healing of the sick invites us
to reflect on the meaning and virtue of illness. This also reminds us of the
World Day of the Sick, which we shall celebrate on Wednesday, 11 February, the
liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. I bless the initiatives prepared
for this Day, in particular the Vigil that will take place in Rome on the
evening of 10 February. Let us also remember the President of the Pontifical
Council for Health Care Workers (Health Pastoral Care), Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, who is
very sick in Poland. A prayer for him, for his health, because it was he who
organized this Day, and he accompanies us in his suffering on this Day. Let us
pray for Archbishop Zimowski.
The salvific work of Christ is not exhausted with his
Person and in the span of his earthly life; it continues through the Church,
the sacrament of God’s love and tenderness for mankind. In sending his disciples
on mission, Jesus confers a double mandate on them: to proclaim the Gospel of
salvation and to heal the sick (cf. Mt 10:7-8). Faithful to this teaching, the
Church has always considered caring for the sick an integral part of her
mission.
“The poor and the suffering you will always have with
you”, Jesus admonishes (cf. Mt 26:11), and the Church continually finds them
along her path, considering those who are sick as a privileged way to encounter
Christ, to welcome and serve him. To treat the sick, to welcome them, to serve
them, is to serve Christ: the sick are the flesh of Christ.
This also occurs in our own time, when,
notwithstanding the many scientific break-throughs, the interior and physical
suffering of people raises serious questions about the meaning of illness and
pain, and about the reason for death. They are existential questions, to which
the pastoral action of the Church must respond with the light of faith, having
before her eyes the Crucifixion, in which appears the whole of the salvific
mystery of God the Father, who out of love for human beings did not spare his
own Son (cf. Rm 8:32). Therefore, each one of us is called to bear the light of
the Word of God and the power of grace to those who suffer, and to those who
assist them — family, doctors, nurses — so that the service to the sick might
always be better accomplished with more humanity, with generous dedication,
with evangelical love, with tenderness. Mother Church, through our hands,
caresses our suffering and treats our wounds, and does so with the tenderness
of a mother.
Let us pray to Mary, Health of the Sick, that every
person who is sick might experience, thanks to the care of those who are close
to them, the power of God’s love and the comfort of her maternal tenderness.
After
the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, today, 8 February, is the
Feast of St Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese nun, who as a child had the traumatic
experience of being a victim of human trafficking. The Unions of Superiors and
Superiors General of Religious Institutes have organized the Day of Prayer and
Awareness against Human Trafficking. I encourage those who work helping the
men, women and children who are enslaved, exploited, abused as instruments of
work or pleasure, who are often tortured and mutilated. It is my hope that
government leaders may work decisively to remove the causes of this disgraceful
scourge, it is a scourge unworthy of society. May each one of us feel committed
to being a voice for our brothers and sisters, who have been humiliated in
their dignity. Let us all pray to Our Lady for them and for their family
members. [Hail Mary...]
I wish everyone a happy Sunday. Please do not forget
to pray for me. Have a good lunch and arrivederci!
© Copyright - Libreria
Editrice Vaticana
Post a Comment