Bishop Kevin Farrell

The Chief Shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas

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World Day of the Sick

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Did you know that each year the Church celebrates a World Day of the Sick?

It was instituted in 1992 by Pope John Paul II to be celebrated on February 11, the commemoration of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette Soubirous, at whose shrine at Lourdes so many have been healed. The Holy Father had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a year earlier, though it was not acknowledged publicly.

Catholics are called by this observance to reflect on the mystery of suffering that is common to all human beings. It is also a reminder of the importance of compassion for those suffering and in need by individuals as well as society. In his encyclical Spe Salvi (In hope we are saved) Pope Benedict XVI teaches that “the true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer.”

Jesus did not take away our suffering, but, by becoming a human being and sharing in our suffering and pain, he completely changed it. He made suffering redemptive.

When I was a boy and we suffered even a minor hurt, we were always reminded to “offer it up” meaning to make our suffering redemptive for others. Perhaps we should revive that practice to give meaning to the suffering that we all share.

We are also called by Christian compassion to reach out to those who are suffering and in need, always keeping in mind that it is the love of Christ that motivates us.

A time of beginnings and endings

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It is the time of the year when we celebrate graduations, marriages and ordinations as our children, friends and associates draw to the end of one phase of their journey and move on to the challenge of a new beginning. It is a time of both sadness and joy; surrendering the comfort of the old to the unknown of the new, but the old must die to give birth to the new.

As we reflect upon our journey to God we see it is a series of endings and beginnings, of deaths and resurrections. As Christians we celebrate death and resurrection, not only as we commemorate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, but in the events of our Christian life, a series of endings and new beginnings from birth to death.

They are mileposts on our journey to God. That journey begins with our being thrust into the world from the warmth and protection of our mother’s womb. The carefree and playful time of early childhood abruptly dies when we are marched off to the new beginnings of school; our world changes.

And so it goes. We die to childhood and schooldays and are reborn as adults. The freedom of the single life ends with the responsibility and joys of marriage. The world changes dramatically with parenthood. Endings and new beginnings; empty nest, retirement and our final journey; deaths and resurrections.

Jesus puts it this way “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies it produces much fruit.” John 12:24.

We congratulate our graduates our brides and grooms and our ordinands and bless them as they greet the future in faith and in hope on their journey to God