Icons of the Good Samaritan

The Holy Father recently visited the Sacred Heart Hospice, a private clinic in Rome offering free medical assistance to patients suffering from cancer in its final stages, Alzheimer's and motor neuron disease. The centre came into being at the initiative of two groups: the Circolo San Pietro and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Roma. Over 11 years, the number of patients has risen from three to more than 30.

What Pope Benedict XVI had to say on the occasion provides a very relevant message for Charity Day, which the Church in Malta will be celebrating on Sunday and includes an annual collection in favour of Church charitable activities and Church homes.

The funds collected on such an occasion are in fact distributed according to the needs of the various Church homes and Church charity activities. These include homes providing shelter to children and young persons who have experienced difficulties in their up-bringing as well as families who have faced domestic violence. They also include the various services offered by Caritas, the Dar tal-Providenza, the homes for the elderly, the Catholic Action's Social Assistance Secretariat; the work of the refugee section of the Secretariat for Emigration and Tourism and Dar Pirotta.

"We know," said the Holy Father at the Sacred Heart Hospice, "how certain serious diseases inevitably cause the sick to suffer moments of crisis and disorientation, and make them reflect seriously about their personal situation. Progress in medical science, often offers the instruments necessary to face these challenges, at least as concerns their physical aspects. Yet, it is not always possible to find a cure for every disease".

"Today," Pope Benedict went on, "the predominant efficiency-oriented mentality often tends to marginalise the sick, holding them to be a burden and a problem for society. Yet, people who have a sense of human dignity know that they must be respected and supported as they face the difficulties and suffering associated with their health. To this end, alongside the vital clinical cures, it is necessary to offer the sick concrete gestures of love, closeness and Christian solidarity in order to meet their need for understanding, comfort and constant encouragement."

After then highlighting how, over the centuries, the Church has always shown herself to be a loving mother to people who suffer in body and in spirit, the Pope encouraged those people who, "making themselves icons of the Good Samaritan, offer appropriate and attentive assistance to the needs of everyone". The Church is full of gratitude and appreciation for the dedicated services of all those engaged in health care, who selflessly minister to the sick, the suffering and the dying, drawing strength and inspiration from their faith in the Lord Jesus and from the Gospel image of the Good Samaritan.

The parable of the Good Samaritan captures very well the noblest sentiments and response of someone confronted with a fellow human being in suffering and need. A Good Samaritan is anyone who stops to attend to the needs of those who are suffering.

The Christian response to pain and suffering is never one of passivity. Urged on by Christian charity, which finds its supreme expression in the life and works of Jesus, who "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), the Church goes out to meet the sick and suffering, bringing them comfort and hope. This is not a mere exercise of benevolence, but is motivated by compassion and concern leading to care and dedicated service. It ultimately involves the unselfish gift of self to others, especially to those who are suffering.

During his visit to the Sacred Heart Hospice, the Holy Father also spoke about how and why faith teaches us to seek the ultimate meaning of suffering in Christ's passion, death and resurrection.

While assuring the sick of his prayers, the Pope invited them to find support and comfort in Jesus, in order never to lose faith and hope. "Your sickness is a painful and unique trial, but in the face of the mystery of God who took on our mortal flesh it acquires its full meaning, and becomes a gift and an opportunity for sanctification."

"When suffering and discomfort are greatest," said Benedict XVI, "think that Christ is associating you with his cross because, through you, he wishes to pronounce a word of love to all those who have lost their way in life and, closed in their own egoism, live in sin, far from God. Your state of health bears witness to the fact that true life is not here, but with God."

In the light of faith we can see sickness and suffering as a special experience, a visit from God who, in a mysterious way, comes out to meet us and so frees us from solitude and non-meaning, transforming pain into a time for meeting Him, a time of hope and salvation.

Through His suffering on the Cross, Christ has prevailed over evil and enables us too, to overcome it. Our sufferings become meaningful and precious when united with His. As God and man, Christ has taken upon Himself the sufferings of humanity, and in Him human suffering itself takes on a redemptive meaning. In this union between the human and the divine, suffering brings forth good and overcomes evil.