Sickness is ‘an occasion for transformative encounter’ - Pope Francis

Pope Francis said that those who struggle with illnesses are the ones who deeply experience the “closeness and compassion of God.”

“God does not abandon us and often amazes us by granting us a strength that we never expected, and would never have found on our own,” he said.

“Sickness, then, becomes an occasion for a transformative encounter, the discovery of a solid rock to which we can hold fast amid the tempests of life,” he further said.

This was the central theme of the Holy Father’s message for the 33rd World Day of the Sick, observed every February 11.

Pope Francis said that suffering is a reminder that nobody is truly alone, and that such experience delivers “a mysterious promise of salvation.”

“More than anything else, suffering makes us aware that hope comes from the Lord. It is thus, first and foremost, a gift to be received and cultivated, by remaining ‘faithful to the faithfulness of God,’” said the pontiff.

He also stressed that only through Jesus’ paschal mystery can we attain the certainty that nothing in this world will be able to separate mankind from God’s love.

“This ‘great hope’ is the source of all those small glimmers of light that [help] us to see our way through the trials and obstacles of life,” said the Holy Father.

Furthermore, Pope Francis said that places of suffering, from hospitals to the bedside of the sick, can become “places of sharing and mutual enrichment.”

“How often, when we care for those in need, do we discover love! We realize that we are ‘angels’ of hope and messengers of God for one another,” he said.

The pope urged the faithful to cherish the beauty of looking after the sick, which he described as “grace-filled encounters.”

Finally, the Holy Father expressed his gratitude to the ill and everyone who looks after them for their “hymn to human dignity” which is “a song of hope.”

“Its strains are heard far beyond the rooms and beds of health facilities, and serve to elicit in charity ‘the choral participation of society as a whole’ in a harmony that is at times difficult to achieve, but for that very reason is so comforting and powerful, capable of bringing light and warmth wherever they are most needed,” Pope Francis said.

The World Day of the Sick was established by Saint John Paul II to encourage everyone to offer prayers for those suffering from all kinds of illnesses, especially terminal ones.

It coincides with the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, whose apparition site in France has been a popular pilgrimage site for the sick and elderly.