Pope exhorts to live the pain by accepting the reality
May 17,2014:“Acceptance of sufferring passively and letting go with inertia and resignation
and the reaction of rebellion and rejection are the wrong attitudes to suffering”
said Pope Francis to about 5000 members of the Silent Workers of the Cross and the
Apostolate of the Suffering on Saturday in the Paul VI Hall.
The two apostolic
associations were founded by Blessed Luigi Novarese for evangelization by and among
people with illness and disability with the purpose of bringing about “a complete
emancipation of suffering persons, through a work of evangelization and teaching of
catechism directly carried out by the handicapped”. Its activity takes place in co-operation
with the Silent Workers of the Cross, an association of priests and consecrated men
and women.
In his message to the associations, marking the centenary of their
founder’s birth, Pope Francis stressed that there are right and wrong ways to live
with pain and suffering.
“A wrong attitude is to live pain in a passive manner,
letting go with inertia and resignation. Even the reaction of rebellion and rejection
is not a correct attitude,” he said. “Jesus teaches us to live the pain by accepting
the reality of life with trust and hope, bringing the love of God and neighbour, even
in suffering: and love transforms everything.”
The meeting came on the 67th
anniversary of the founding of the Apostolate of the Suffering and a little over one
year after Blessed Luigi’s beatification on 11 May, 2013.