Pope Francis: the sick are living signs of Christ's presence

Last updated: Thu 31 Mar 2022 PM

Pope Francis received representatives of the "Villa Maria Care & Research" group on Saturday 1 February at the Vatican. In front of the employees of this private company which operates in health, research, biomedical industry and thermal wellness, the Holy Father spoke of the suffering of sick people as a means of better understanding the necessity and value of the divine gift of redemption and faith.

I wish that your structures, "places of suffering but also of hope and of human and spiritual experience", will be more and more marked by solidarity and care for the sick, expressed the Supreme Pontiff.

Indeed, the Pope recognizes that technological evolution and changes of a social, economic and political nature have changed the fabric on which the life of hospitals and health care structures is based. "Hence the need for a new culture, especially in the technical and moral preparation of health care workers at all levels".

Humanizing hospitals

It is thus to be hoped, Francis points out, that the places of care will be more and more houses of welcome and comfort, where the sick person will find friendship, understanding, kindness and charity. In this regard, "it is necessary to stimulate the collaboration of all, in order to respond to the needs of the sick with a spirit of service and an attitude of generosity and sensitivity", he pleaded. In order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary not to be absorbed by "systems" that only aim at the economic-financial component, but to implement "a style of closeness to the person", in order to be able to assist him "with human warmth" in the face of the anxieties that affect him in the most critical moments of the illness. And the Pope summed up this position as a just and concrete "humanization of medicine and of the reality of hospital and health care".

Those who recognize themselves in the Christian faith are called to carry out their service in the spirit of the words of Jesus," the Pope said, specifying this Gospel foundation: "Whenever you have done these things to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done them to me. (Mt 25:40).

The man who suffers understands redemption

"Thus the sick and the suffering become, for those who have faith, living signs of the presence of Christ, the Son of God, who came to heal and cure, taking upon himself our fragility, our weakness," the Bishop of Rome continued. "Taking care of the brother who suffers means, in this sense, making room for the Lord". From these places of healing and pain there also emanates a message for the life of all, because the suffering man understands better the necessity and value of the divine gift of redemption and faith and helps his relatives to appreciate and seek this gift.

The Pope's closeness to the sick

"And it is precisely to the sick and sick people in your structures that I would like to express my closeness, which I ask you to convey to them. I join them in their expectation of healing, sharing spiritually in their ordeal and hoping that it will soon be over, so that each one may return to his or her home and family as soon as possible. For them I invoke from the Lord the gifts of patience and trust, as well as so much strength of endurance, to be always docile to God's will, trusting in his paternal and providential goodness," concluded the Holy Father, entrusting all the representatives to Our Lady's intercession.

Source: Vatican News