The 17th World Day of the Sick will be 11 February 2009. Each year, the Holy Father issues a message to the world to mark this occasion. This year’s was released today from the Vatican City. I would encourage you to log onto the Holy See’s website, and read it for yourselves. Benedict XVI is asking every diocese to celebrate this day in reflection on the reality of suffering in our families and communities. He speaks of the Church’s obligation to assist families that may have children who are suffering from disease and distress.
I want to draw you attention to one segment of his message, which I have translated from the Italian:
“The dedication and responsibility we have unceasingly every day to serve sick children constitute an eloquent witness to the love for human life, in particular for the life of the weak and who are completely dependent on others. This demands, in fact, a vigorous affermation of the absolute and supreme dignity of every human life. The teaching that the Church incessantly proclaims, without change, throughout the passage of time is this: Human life is beautiful and is seen in its fullness even when it is weak and clothed by the mystery of suffering. It is to Jesus crucified that we must turn our attention: dying on the cross, he wanted to share the suffering of all of humanity. In his suffering in love, we see a supreme participation with the pain of the little ones who suffer and their parents.” (Italics original)
I sense the Holy Father may be referring to a current case in Italy very similar to the Terry Schiavo case here in the United States. In Italy, there is a young women (pictures of whom have an uncanny resemblance of Terry Schiavo) who is being starved and deprived of fluids. The House of Deputies and the Italian Senate have intervened and passed a decree requiring food and water be given to the young woman, but the Italian president refuses to sign the decree and without his signature, it fails to become law.
Regardless of contemporary Italian circumstances, the Pope’s words are worth our recall. Even the sickest, weakest and most vulnerable and dependent are of equal dignity to the healthiest, strongest and most independent of our families and communities. As Benedict indicates at the end of the excerpt, in them we see Christ crucified. Him alone do we adore.
