of card. Anthony Poola *
The homily given by the archbishop of Hyderabad, the Dalit prelate wanted by Pope Francis in the college of cardinals, at the Marian shrine of Guandala Matha for today’s World Day of the Sick on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes: “Prayer and closeness to those suffers announces to everyone a new way of proceeding together”.
Vijayawada (AsiaNews) – The Catholic Church celebrates today throughout the world the World Day of the Sick, wanted by John Paul II in 1992 on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. On the occasion of this anniversary, the archbishop of Hyderabad in India, card. Anthony Poola – the first cardinal from a Dalit family (the so-called outcastes) – presided over a Mass in the shrine of Gunadala Matha, a mission founded a century ago by Fr. Ugo Pezzoni, PIME missionary, near Vijayawada in Andra Pradesh. For some years now, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes has attracted tens of thousands of faithful to this place. We publish below an excerpt from the homily given today by card. Poola.
Revelation tells us that God is present among us. All Marian apparitions – in Lourdes, in Fatima, in Vailankanni, in Guadalupe or in Medjugorje – indicate who God is and how we must address him.
Bernadette sums up her experience of the Marian apparitions in Lourdes beautifully: “I can’t explain to anyone what I saw, because no matter how much I try to explain, everyone understands in their own way. God and the mother of God can only be understood when each of us sees them face to face.” In Lourdes Bernadette received an experience of God. The experience of God happens to each of us – by reading the Word of God, or participating in Holy Mass, or doing a novena, or participating in a retreat, or in our commitment to the liberation of the oppressed. And God works miracles even today. To realize this we need eyes of faith.
On this 31st World Day of the Sick, our Holy Father has chosen the theme “Take care of him: compassion as a synodal exercise of healing”. In fact, he combines his gaze on three dimensions: one, the first, the World Day of the Sick on 11 February; the second his encyclical Brothers all; the third is the current synod for a synodal Church 2021-2024.
The pope says: “Illness is part of our human condition. However, if the disease is experienced in isolation and abandonment, not accompanied by care and compassion, it can become inhumane”. He invites us to reflect on the fact that it is above all through the experience of vulnerability and illness that we can learn to walk together in God’s style, which is closeness, compassion and tenderness.
To lay the foundations, he uses the text of Ezekiel 34:3-4 and 15-16: the foundation is God’s compassion. God overthrows the shepherds who fed on the sheep and stands as the true shepherd with compassion and care. God comes to seek out the vulnerable, the sick, the weak and the downtrodden.
In the encyclical Brothers all, through a creative interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Pope Francis invites us to be compassionate people. In the parable, two travellers, considered pious and religious, see the wounded man, but do not stop. The third passer-by, on the other hand, a Samaritan, a despised foreigner, is moved by compassion and takes care of that foreigner on the road, treating him like a brother. In doing so, without even thinking about it, he makes a difference, makes the world more fraternal.
When we are sick we feel abandoned and alone. Sometimes we may feel that God has forsaken us or that he has treated us unfairly. World Day of the Sick invites prayer and closeness to those who suffer. But it also aims to make God’s people, health institutions and civil society aware of a new way of proceeding together.
The Samaritan calls the owner of the inn to “take care” of the wounded man (Lk 10:35). Jesus makes the same appeal to each of us. He exhorts us to “go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37). On this day we must remember the commitment of health and social workers, family members and volunteers, through whom good stands up to evil every day.
Today, as we turn our gaze to Our Lady of Lourdes, we can imitate her in seeking out the weak and vulnerable. She herself experienced vulnerability at the foot of the cross. Let’s try to include the sick in our journey. Let them be at the center.
As we invoke the intercession of Mary, Arogya Matha, Health of the Sick, we entrust to you all who are sick – physically, mentally and spiritually. We entrust our health workers, family members and volunteers to her, so that a fraternal bond of communion can be built through them. Let us care for one another through compassion, which is a synodal exercise in healing.
* Archbishop of Hyderabad
(collaborated with Nirmala Carvalho)
