At the end of the Jubilee of the sick and the world of health care, Pope Francis has surprised the world, and has gone out to St. Peter's Square in a wheelchair, and to bless the faithful. "Thank you all!" the Pope said. "Good Sunday to all, thank you very much."
Before more than 20,000 pilgrims who came to Rome for the Jubilee of the Sick and the World of Health, and convalescing from his illness in the Santa Marta house, the Pope wanted to go out to the main altar, share his testimony and greeting the sick and caregivers who have come to the jubilee.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Section for Fundamental Questions in the Dicastery for Evangelization, stressed that Pope Francis "is particularly close to us." Then, before the reading of the Pope's homilysaid that the Pontiff shares "the experience of illness, of feeling weak, of depending on others for many things, of needing support.
The school of disease
In his homily, the Pope pointed out that "it is not always easy, but it is a school in which we learn every day to love and to let ourselves be loved, without pretending and without rejecting, without lamenting and without despairing, grateful to God and to our brothers and sisters for the good we receive, abandoned and confident in what is yet to come".
"Certainly," the Holy Father added, "illness is one of the most difficult and hardest trials of life, in which we perceive our fragility. It can make us feel like the people in exile, or like the woman in the Gospel, deprived of hope for the future. But this is not so.
"Even in these moments, God does not leave us alone and, if we abandon ourselves to him, precisely where our strength is failing, we can experience the consolation of his presence". The Lord himself, made man, "wanted to share in all our weakness", and so to him "we can present and entrust our pain, certain to find compassion, closeness and tenderness".
Benedict XVI's testimony on suffering
In concluding, the Pope recalled his predecessor Benedict XVI, "who gave us a beautiful testimony of serenity in the time of his illness". He wrote in his encyclical 'Spe salvi' that "the greatness of humanity is essentially determined by its relationship with suffering" and that "a society that fails to accept those who suffer [...] is a cruel and inhuman society". Because "facing suffering together makes us more human and sharing pain is an important stage in every journey towards holiness".
To those who suffer
In the text prepared for the AngelusPope Francis prayed that "on the day of the Jubilee of the sick and the world of health care, I ask the Lord that this touch of his love may reach those who suffer and encourage those who care for them. And I pray for doctors, nurses and health personnel, who are not always helped to work in adequate conditions and are sometimes even the victims of aggression".
For peace
At the end, he encouraged to "pray for peace in the tormented Ukraine, hit by attacks that cause many civilian casualties, including many children. And the same is happening in Gaza, where people are reduced to living in unimaginable conditions, without shelter, without food, without drinking water. Let the guns be silenced and dialogue be resumed; let all hostages be released and the population rescued".
"Let us pray for peace throughout the Middle East; in Sudan and South Sudan; in the Democratic Republic of Congo; in Myanmar, also sorely tried by the earthquake; and in Haiti, where the violence that killed two nuns a few days ago is raging. May the Virgin Mary protect us and intercede for us," the Pope concluded.
