Brief address of the Holy Fatherat Fatima, to those Sick
(May 13, 2010) Dear brothers and sisters who are sick, Before I walk among you carrying
the monstrance containing Jesus present in the Eucharist, I would like to offer you
a word of encouragement and hope, a word which I extend to all those following us
on television and radio, and to those without even such means, but who are united
to us by the deeper bonds of the Spirit, that is, in faith and prayer. My dear
brother and sister, in the eyes of God you are “worth so much to God that he himself
became man in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way — in flesh and blood
— as is revealed to us in the account of Jesus's Passion. Hence in all human suffering
we are joined by one who experiences and carries that suffering with us; hence con-solatio
is present in all suffering, the consolation of God's compassionate love — and so
the star of hope rises” (Spe Salvi, 39). With such hope in your heart, you can leave
behind the quicksand of illness and death and stand on the firm rock of divine love.
In other words, you can overcome the feeling of the uselessness of suffering which
consumes a person from within and makes him feel a burden to those around him when,
in reality, suffering which is lived with Jesus assists in the salvation of your brethren.
How is this possible? Because the spring of divine power rises in the midst of
human weakness. This is the paradox of the Gospel. Therefore, the divine Master,
instead of explaining the reasons for suffering, preferred to call everyone to follow
him, saying: Take up your cross and follow me (cf. Mk 8:34). Come with me. With
your suffering, take part in the work of salvation which is realized through my suffering,
by means of my cross. As you gradually embrace your own cross, uniting yourself spiritually
to my cross, the salvific meaning of suffering will be revealed to you. In suffering,
you will discover an interior peace and even spiritual joy. Dear friends who are
sick, welcome the call of Jesus who will shortly pass among you in the Most Blessed
Sacrament, and entrust to him every setback and pain that you face, so that they become
- according to his design – a means of redemption for the whole world. You will be
redeemers with the Redeemer, just as you are sons in the Son. At the cross… stands
the mother of Jesus, our mother.