by Father Joseph Steele,
chaplain, Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital
On Feb.11, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Church celebrates the World Day of the Sick to bring an awareness of the powerful prayers that the sick have for the good of the Church and the redemption of the world, and to remind everyone to see the face of Christ in our sick brothers and sisters by our compassionate care for them.
Each year millions of sick people flock to Our Lady of Lourdes shrine in France from all over the world to ask Mary, their spiritual Mother, to pray for the cure of their illnesses. While many have experienced partial and complete healing over the years, the vast majority walk away still suffering from their illnesses. As Catholics, we believe that God sometimes permits a healing, but more often He is asking us to share in Jesus’ passion for our own sanctification and the good of other souls.
The prayers of the sick and the suffering are most powerful and can be used for the salvation of souls. St. Paul writes, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the Church.” (Col. 1:24) In the Cross of Christ, not only is redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ, by offering his sufferings for the salvation of others. (cf. Salvifici Doloris, 19-20)
The primary way that the sick and suffering can help with the redemption of souls is through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This sacrifice is ever the same and ever new. It is the same, in that, it makes present Christ’s sacrifice on the cross 2,000 years ago. It is ever new, in that, our sacrifices are united to Jesus’ own sacrifice.
At every Mass the priest pours wine and a drop of water into the chalice. The wine represents Christ’s sacrifice, while the drop of water represents our own sacrifices, prayers, and sufferings. When the water is mingled with the wine, the drop of water becomes completely lost and united to the wine. Since this action unites our sacrifice to Christ’s, it is offered through the priest to God the Father. St. Paul writes, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Rm 12:1) This union of our offering with Jesus’ sacrifice can deepen the meaning of our Mass.
It’s worthwhile to make a conscious effort to make this offering. The Church has given us a simple way to do this by saying the Morning Offering Prayer. The purpose of this prayer is to offer all of our good works, sacrifices, and sufferings throughout the day in union with the Holy Mass. It is recommended that we say this prayer when we first wake up. We may also make a simple prayer in the moment of suffering or difficulty, by consciously raising our hearts to God and uniting the problem to the Sacrifice of the Mass, which is always going on somewhere in the world.
The World Day of the Sick also helps us to be aware of the need for Christians to recognize Jesus in the sick and distressed and to care for them. These acts of sacrificial compassion can also be united to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus teaches us, “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of our brothers, you did it to me.” (Mt 25:40) When we see a person suffering from illness or distress, in faith we see the face of our suffering Lord. It is in the Parable of the Good Samaritan that we learn who our neighbor is and how we are to treat him with compassion. Compassion means to suffer with him, to walk with him, to care for his needs when he is not able to care for himself.
It is in learning compassion that we learn how to love. St. John Paul teaches us, “Suffering is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love towards one’s neighbor, in order to transform the whole human civilization into a ‘civilization of love.’” (Salvifici Doloris, 30)
As Christians we have the privilege of helping build the culture of love. The Blessed Mother is a model of Christian compassion, who walked with her Son as He carried his cross on the road to Calvary and who would remain with Him as He hung on the Cross until God would take His Son to Himself. In the same way Our Spiritual Mother Mary accompanies us in our own suffering. Many of the people who go to Lourdes who are not healed physically feel her compassion by noticing an interior grace that they have never experienced which gives them strength and peace to carry their own cross, to suffer well.
In summary, there is a double aspect to the meaning of suffering that Jesus Christ reveals to man, that man is called by his own suffering to do good by offering up his sufferings with Christ for the salvation of the world, and that man is to see the face of Jesus in his suffering brother by compassionately caring for him.
