The Catholic Church celebrates the World Day of the Sick on 11^th February for the last 18 years. February 11^th is the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes. Why the Church celebrates this day of the sick on the feast of Blessed Virgin Mary? The relation can be easily drawn out from what happens each day at Lourdes during the Eucharistic and rosary processions. Hundreds of sick people, most of them in the wheel chairs and stretchers helped by volunteers, participate in the processions each day and many get miraculously cured. To other sick people it is an occasion of reorienting their hearts and thoughts on the meaning of suffering.

When Pope John Paul II instituted the World Day of the Sick eighteen years back, his main aim was to make people reflect on the meaning of suffering. Suffering is a huge mystery. We get perplexed sometimes at the experiences of suffering of just and pious people. The advancements in neither medical science nor technology were able to answer this mystery. Only God the Father has an answer to this mystery and the answer given by the Father is His Son on the cross.

February 11^th is not a day to be celebrated with some attractive rituals. The celebration of this day must touch the conscience of each of us and make our hearts more sensitive to the concerns of the sick people. It should also help our community to form a new culture, a culture of life which will give solace to the sick people who maybe near to their death.

For Jesus, the sick were very important people. The very heart of His gospel is the message of healing. As it is said in the Acts, “he went around doing good and healing” (10:38). When he entrusted his disciples the Mission he gave them the power to heal the sick (Mk. 16:18). To the ones who suffer, he said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). As the model of the ones who has to nurse a sick, he presented the Good Samaritan. Jesus deals with the sick people he meets in two ways. He cured the sickness of some physically through external miracles. There are numerous instances of this in the gospel. And to some he moved internally to accept the pain as a salvific one as in the case of Paul. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh” (2 Cor 12:7)

The Church has to do its healing ministry in a world where secularization diminished the value of the suffering, the eschatological hope is thrown away and a culture of death and selfishness is propagated. The church however does not retreat from its mission of life an inch. The strong conviction of the Church that it has to uphold the value of life, a gift of God and the redemptive value of the suffering of Jesus leads her to stand by the suffering sick people and to go be in war against the secular forces which demand the evils like euthanasia in view of alleviating the pain of the sickness. The church works on two principles regarding the care for the sick. One, the suffering has a salvific value for the person himself and to others. Two, the church being the mystical body of Christ, as the injury of any part of the body cause the pain all over the body, each member has a responsibility to care for the sick. The innumerous hospitals, religious congregations dedicated for healthcare and health care personal promoted by the church are shining examples of this conviction of the Church.

Now I would like to speak about certain Christian responses to the experience of sickness. It is important to have an idea of the Christian response of a sick person at the pains of his sickness and also the response of a relative or caretaker at the sickbed of his dear one. If these responses are not Christian, there is always the danger of a sick person’s life becoming miserable and he being yielded to the culture of death knowingly or unknowingly.

My dear brothers and sisters who are sick, I invite you to reflect on the sufferings undertaken by our Lord and how it saved all of us. As St. Paul tells the Colossians, our suffering too has a salvific value. “Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Col 1:24). Listen to what Jesus Himself has to say, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (Jn 9:2). Dear brothers and sisters, you maybe constantly praying to the Lord to get healed but without any avail. To some he may grant the healing physically but to others the call is to be his apostles of the Cross. This is a call to elevate you just from a lying sick person to a missionary and a saint. Was not St. Alphonsa an apostle of the Cross of Christ? The pain afflicted is not always to damn you but the same pain can be the source of your salvation. In a world where the culture of death prevails, suffering is seen merely as an evil and shortcoming, you are missionaries of life, a life given by Jesus on the cross. A Certain Rev. Sister celebrated the Jubilee of her sickness and suffering some time back. She fell down on the altar 25 years back while arranging the flowers and since was suffering from intense back pain. She celebrates the suffering and thus follows the footsteps of Jesus Christ who asked us to celebrate his suffering on the Cross each day. You should realize that Jesus was glorified and his pains turned to joy not by avoiding the cross which came to his way, but rather by accepting them happily. The sorrows of a mother do not turn joy not by aborting her baby but by giving birth to him or her and going through the pains of pregnancy and delivery.

Dear near and dear ones of the sick people, the sickness is very harsh most of the time. It is your responsibility to show mercy to the sick ones which the sickness itself will not show to the sick. Now we discuss a lot about Euthanasia as a bill is proposed to the Government of Kerala to regulate so that the citizens of the state can go for it. If the near and dear ones show the needed care and concern to the sick, which sick person will long for euthanasia? I am sure that the pain from a sickness is not the greatest pain of a sick person, rather the greatest pain of the sick one is caused when the relatives neglect the concerns of the sick. The cry of a sick person does not always come from the pain he suffers; rather it is a cry towards us for our attention, care and love. The most important attitude must be to see the face of Jesus on the face of the sick. John Paul II says, “When I visit hospitals and treatment centers….I particularly like to pause beside the patients, their relatives and the health-care personnel. These places are like shrines where people participate in Christ’s paschal mystery.” The parable of the Good Samaritan must inspire us. The beautiful dress we wear or the traveling plan of ours or our position in the society should not deter us from helping a sick person. We have heroic examples in this regard like that of Mother Theresa and Fr. Damien, who nursed the lepers in the island of Molokai.