At 12:45 pm today, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience, those participating in the Pilgrimage of the Silent Workers of the Cross Association and the Volunteer Centre for Suffering, located in Rome. They are celebrating the centenary of the birth of their founder, Blessed Luigi Novarese, the apostle to the sick, one year after his beatification.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I welcome you and thank you for having come here! You are celebrating the centenary of the birth of your Founder, Blessed Luigi Novarese, a beloved priest of Christ and of the Church, and a zealous apostle of the sick. His personal experience of suffering, lived in his infancy, made him very aware of human suffering. For this reason, he founded the Silent Workers of the Cross and the Volunteer Centre for Suffering, which still continues his work today.
I want to reflect with you today on one of the Beatitudes: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be consoled (Mt 5:4). With this prophetic word, Jesus refers to a condition of earthly life which is known by all people. We weep because we are not in good health, or because we are alone or misunderstood ... There are so many reasons for human suffering. In this world, Jesus knew both affection and humiliation. He experienced human suffering, accepted them in his own flesh, he lived each one of them to the very end. He knew every kind of affliction, both moral and physical: he experienced hunger and fatigue, the bitterness of misunderstanding, he was betrayed and abandoned, whipped and crucified.
But saying blessed are those who mourn, Jesus doesn't mean to declare an unfavourable situation as happy or life to be burdensome. Suffering is not a value in and of itself, but a reality that Jesus taught should be lived with the right attitude. There are in fact right and wrong ways to experience pain and suffering. A wrong way would be to live with pain and suffering in a passive way, resigning oneself to the effects of inertia. Neither would it be considered as just to react in rebellion or rejection. Jesus taught us to live our sufferings by accepting the realities of life with faithfulness and hope, putting the love of God and of others ahead of all else as an example of the love that transforms all things.
Blessed Luigi Novarese also taught this truth, by instructing the sick and the disabled to find value in their suffering as an apostolic action which advances our efforts for the sake of others in faith and love. He would always say: The sick should be the masters of their own apostolate. A sick or disabled person can therefore be support and light for others who suffer, thus transforming the ambiance in which they live.
With this charism, you are a gift for the Church. Your sufferings, like the wounds of Jesus, are in some senses a scandal for the faithful, but they are also proofs of faith, signs that God is Love and that he is faithful, merciful and consoling. United with the risen Christ you are living signs of the work of salvation and evangelization (Apostolic Exhortation, Christifidelis laici, 54). I encourage you to always be close to those who suffer in your parishes, as witnesses of the Resurrection. In this way, you will enrich the Church and collaboration with the mission of the pastors, praying for and offering your suffering for them. For this, I wish to thank you so much.
Dear friends, may the Madonna help you to truly be workers of the Cross and true volunteers for suffering, accepting your crosses and sufferings with faith and love, as Jesus did. I bless you, and I ask you the favour of praying for me. Thank you.
Before receiving the blessing, I invite you all to pray to the Madonna, our mother. She knows, she knows the sufferings and she can always help us in our moments of greatest challenge.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the meeting with participants in
the pilgrimage of the Association of the
Silent Workers of the Cross and the
Volunteer Centre for Sufering
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I welcome you and thank you for having come here! You are celebrating the centenary of the birth of your Founder, Blessed Luigi Novarese, a beloved priest of Christ and of the Church, and a zealous apostle of the sick. His personal experience of suffering, lived in his infancy, made him very aware of human suffering. For this reason, he founded the Silent Workers of the Cross and the Volunteer Centre for Suffering, which still continues his work today.
I want to reflect with you today on one of the Beatitudes: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be consoled (Mt 5:4). With this prophetic word, Jesus refers to a condition of earthly life which is known by all people. We weep because we are not in good health, or because we are alone or misunderstood ... There are so many reasons for human suffering. In this world, Jesus knew both affection and humiliation. He experienced human suffering, accepted them in his own flesh, he lived each one of them to the very end. He knew every kind of affliction, both moral and physical: he experienced hunger and fatigue, the bitterness of misunderstanding, he was betrayed and abandoned, whipped and crucified.
But saying blessed are those who mourn, Jesus doesn't mean to declare an unfavourable situation as happy or life to be burdensome. Suffering is not a value in and of itself, but a reality that Jesus taught should be lived with the right attitude. There are in fact right and wrong ways to experience pain and suffering. A wrong way would be to live with pain and suffering in a passive way, resigning oneself to the effects of inertia. Neither would it be considered as just to react in rebellion or rejection. Jesus taught us to live our sufferings by accepting the realities of life with faithfulness and hope, putting the love of God and of others ahead of all else as an example of the love that transforms all things.
Blessed Luigi Novarese also taught this truth, by instructing the sick and the disabled to find value in their suffering as an apostolic action which advances our efforts for the sake of others in faith and love. He would always say: The sick should be the masters of their own apostolate. A sick or disabled person can therefore be support and light for others who suffer, thus transforming the ambiance in which they live.
With this charism, you are a gift for the Church. Your sufferings, like the wounds of Jesus, are in some senses a scandal for the faithful, but they are also proofs of faith, signs that God is Love and that he is faithful, merciful and consoling. United with the risen Christ you are living signs of the work of salvation and evangelization (Apostolic Exhortation, Christifidelis laici, 54). I encourage you to always be close to those who suffer in your parishes, as witnesses of the Resurrection. In this way, you will enrich the Church and collaboration with the mission of the pastors, praying for and offering your suffering for them. For this, I wish to thank you so much.
Dear friends, may the Madonna help you to truly be workers of the Cross and true volunteers for suffering, accepting your crosses and sufferings with faith and love, as Jesus did. I bless you, and I ask you the favour of praying for me. Thank you.
Before receiving the blessing, I invite you all to pray to the Madonna, our mother. She knows, she knows the sufferings and she can always help us in our moments of greatest challenge.
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