Pope: Through illness, Christ speaks words of love

(December 14, 2009) According to Pope Benedict XVI the sick can live Advent in a deeper way, because illness is a similar time of waiting for God to transform suffering into hope and salvation. The Pope affirmed this on Sunday while visiting the sick and their helpers at the Hospice Foundation of Rome, which provides free aid to people with terminal cancer, Alzheimer's disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS. Acknowledging that in every part of the world there are people who suffer from incurable diseases, many in the terminal phase, the Pope urged that they be “respected and supported while they face the difficulties and sufferings linked with their health conditions." He encouraged the use of palliative care, which is able to soothe pain that comes from the illness and to help infirm persons to get through it with dignity. Furthermore, he said, “it is necessary to offer concrete gestures of love, of nearness and Christian solidarity to the sick, to meet their need for understanding, comfort and constant encouragement." The Holy Father told the patients that that Christ was associating them with His cross because through them He wants to speak a word of love to those who have strayed from the road of life and, closed within their empty egoism, live in sin and separation from God. “In fact, your health conditions testify that true life is not here, but with God, where every one of us will find joy if we humbly walk in the footsteps of the true man: Jesus of Nazareth, Master and Lord,” the Pope added.