Pope Benedict: God desires to heal us

Healing was the theme of Pope Benedict’s weekly Angelus address, delivered this morning in St. Peter’s Square. The Holy Father spoke about today’s Gospel, which relates how a leper had come to Christ, saying “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus replied, saying, “I do will it, be made clean.”

“In that gesture and in those words of Christ,” the Pope said, “is the whole history of salvation, there is embodied the will of God to heal, to cleanse us from the evil that disfigures us and destroys our relationships”.

Pope Benedict spoke of the “existential commentary” on this Gospel passage in the life of Saint Francis, who recognised Christ in a leper. When, overcoming his initial revulsion, Francis nonetheless embraced the leper, “Jesus healed him of his leprosy—that is, his pride—and converted him to the love of God. This,” the Pope said, “is the victory of Christ, which is our deep healing and our resurrection to new life!”

The Pope concluded his remarks with a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose apparition at Lourdes was commemorated yesterday. Our Lady, he said, gave to St. Bernadette, the visionary of Lourdes, a timeless message: the call to prayer and penance.

At the end of his address, Pope Benedict made an urgent appeal for an end to violence and bloodshed in Syria. He called all people to remember in prayer the victims of the conflict. And he called on everyone—and above all the political authorities in Syria—to favor the path of dialogue, reconciliation and commitment to peace.

Listen to Christopher Wells' report: