Hope amid suffering leads to God, pope says in message for world's sick

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While the Holy Year 2025 refrain, “Hope does not disappoint,” can be difficult for those suffering from illness to embrace, Christians are called to recognize God’s closeness even in moments of weakness or despair, Pope Francis said.

Sickness “becomes an occasion for a transformative encounter” when one is open to God, he wrote in his message for the 33rd World Day of the Sick, observed by the church Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

In addition, the Vatican will host the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers April 5-6, an event that will close with a papal Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Square.

“Suffering always brings with it a mysterious promise of salvation, for it makes us experience the closeness and reality of God’s consoling presence,” the pope wrote in the message released Jan. 27.

Despite the frailty felt “on the physical, psychological and spiritual levels” during times of illness, “we also experience the closeness and compassion of God, who, in Jesus, shared in our human suffering,” Pope Francis wrote. “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.”

Pope Francis said that suffering can also be accepted by Christians as a gift, for it “makes us aware that hope comes from the Lord.”

“Indeed, only in Christ’s resurrection does our own life and destiny find its place within the infinite horizon of eternity,” he wrote.

The pope compared the journey of the ill to that of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who, by sharing their anxieties and disappointments with Jesus, came to recognize his presence, enabling them to “sense that ‘greater reality’ which, by drawing near to us, restores our courage and confidence.”

Suffering, Pope Francis added, develops a profound sense of sharing and encounter. Those who tend to the sick realize that they are “angels of hope and messengers of God for one another,” be it at home or at a clinic, nursing home or hospital.

“We need to learn how to appreciate the beauty and significance of these grace-filled encounters,” he wrote. “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.”

Such gestures are “rays of light to be treasured,” the pope said, which even amid adversity “give us strength, while at the same time teaching us the deeper meaning of life in love and closeness.”

Those who care for the sick during the Jubilee year “play an especially important part,” the pope said in his message. Their dedication has an impact “far beyond the rooms and beds of health facilities” in promoting charity and are “capable of bringing light and warmth wherever they are most needed.”

“The whole church thanks you for this!” he wrote. “I do as well, and I remember you always in my prayers.”