Rev Fr C Joseph, Counsellor
St Joseph’s College (Autonomous),
Jakhama, Kohima-Nagaland
Introduction: People around the world take the time to pray for the sick and for those who work very hard to alleviate the sufferings of the sick on this day. Faith organizations mark this day especially to provide the sick with medicines, food, and spiritual guidance. Pope John Paul II initiated the day in 1992 to encourage people to pray for those who suffer from illness and for their caregivers. The Pope himself had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s a year before, in 1991, and it is considered that his own illness was impetus for his designation of the day. World Day of the Sick was first observed on February 11, 1993. February 11 is also the Catholic Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, which a name is given to the Virgin Mary in honor of the apparitions that were said to have been seen in and around Lourdes, France, by a young girl called Bernadette Soubirous. The Church canonized Bernadette as a saint several years later.
Jesus Healed the Sick: Healing the sick, especially strangers as Jesus did, is a supreme act of compassion. Seeking nothing in return, you are following the example to be therapeutic. There are many forms of sickness. People suffer from emotional and psychological as well as physical illness. You can literally get sick, for example, from worry over losing a job, filing for bankruptcy or having difficulties in your marriage. These three areas of life, your career, finances and relationships, are psychological anchors. If any one of these areas is not healthy, like a disease, you can get mentally ill and physically sick. When Jesus cast out demons, for example, he was healing a psychological wound. There are many forms of demons. You don’t have to become a psychotherapist to heal emotional or psychological pain. Just being a friend, listening to and including others in your activities, is healing. When the mind is healthy, the body follows accordingly. Friendship plus time is best medicine. Healing the sick is a success secret because when you help others heal, you enrich yourself. You sow seeds of compassion and reap goodwill. Because life has its ups and downs, you may find yourself in need of healing someday. And if that day comes, God forbid, you can measure your success by the amount of friends you have.
Pope Francis’ three ways to observe the day: 1. Encounter. When Jesus sent the seventy-two disciples out on mission (cf. Lk 10:1-9), he told them to proclaim to the sick: “The kingdom of God has come near to you” (v. 9). He asks them, in other words, to help the sick to see their infirmity, however painful and incomprehensible it may be, as an opportunity to encounter the Lord. In times of illness, we sense our human frailty on the physical, psychological and spiritual levels. Yet we also experience the closeness and compassion of God, who, in Jesus, shared in our human suffering. 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. 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, an experience that, even at great cost, makes us all the stronger because it teaches us that we are not alone. Suffering always brings with it a mysterious promise of salvation, for it makes us experience the closeness and reality of God’s consoling presence. In this way, we come to know “the fullness of the Gospel with all its promise and life” (SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Address to Young People, New Orleans, 12 September 1987).
2. This brings us to the second way that God is close to the suffering: as gift. 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”, in the fine expression of Madeleine Delbrêl (cf. La speranza è una luce nella notte, Vatican City 2024, Preface). Indeed, only in Christ’s resurrection does our own life and destiny find its place within the infinite horizon of eternity. In Jesus’ paschal mystery alone do we attain the certainty that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Rom 8:38-39). 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 (cf. BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi, 27, 31). The risen Lord goes so far as to walk beside us as our companion on the way, even as he did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-53). Like them, we can share with him our anxieties, concerns and disappointments, and listen to his word, which enlightens us and warms our hearts. Like them too, we can recognize him present in the breaking of the bread and thus, even in the present, sense that “greater reality” which, by drawing near to us, restores our courage and confidence.
3. We now come to God’s third way of being close to us: through sharing. Places of suffering are frequently also places of sharing and mutual enrichment. How often, at the bedside of the sick, do we learn to hope! How often, by our closeness to those who suffer, do we learn to have faith! 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, all of us together: whether patients, physicians, nurses, family members, friends, priests, men and women religious, no matter where we are, whether in the family or in clinics, nursing homes, hospitals or medical centers. We need to learn how to appreciate the beauty and significance of these grace-filled encounters. We need to learn how to cherish the gentle smile of a nurse, the gratitude and trust of a patient, the caring face of a doctor or volunteer, or the anxious and expectant look of a spouse, a child, a grandchild or a dear friend. All these are rays of light to be treasured; even amid the dark night of adversity, they give us strength, while at the same time teaching us the deeper meaning of life, in love and closeness (cf. Lk 10:25-37).
Conclusion: Let us care for those who suffer and are alone, perhaps marginalized and cast aside with the love for one another that Christ the Lord bestows on us….. let us tend the words of solitude and isolation. In this way, we will cooperate in combating the culture of individualism, indifference of tenderness and compassion. The World Day of the Sick teaches the importance of caring for the sick and vulnerable, and of recognizing the work of healthcare workers. It also teaches the importance of empathy, solidarity, and support. “Caring for the sick requires professionalism, tenderness, straightforward and simple gestures freely given, like a caress that makes others feel loved”. ” Those who care for the sick and give of themselves with generosity and straightforward love like St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta are amongst the Church are most loved”. “In sickness, we discover the true meaning of compassion and the importance of human connection”. “The sick are at the heart of the Church, and we must tend to their needs with love and care”.
