Francis holds an audience with members of the Silent Workers of the Cross and the Apostolate of the Suffering founded by Luigi Novarese: “There are right and wrong ways to live with pain and suffering”
Francis holds an audience with members of the Silent Workers of the Cross and the Apostolate of the Suffering founded by Luigi Novarese: “There are right and wrong ways to live with pain and suffering”
“Suffering is not a value in itself, but a reality that Jesus teaches us to live with the correct attitude. There are, in fact, right ways and wrong ways to live pain and suffering,” Francis said suring today’s audience with the Silent Workers of the Cross and the Apostolate of the Suffering, two associations that work with the sick and the suffering. The audience was held to mark the centenary of founder, Luigi Novarese’s birth.
“I would like to recall with you one of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,” Francis said. “With this prophetic word, Jesus refers to a condition of life on earth, from which no one is spared. There are those who mourn because they are not healthy, those who mourn because they are alone and misunderstood. The reasons for suffering are many. Jesus experienced affliction and humiliation in this world. He gathered human suffering and assumed them in his flesh, he lived them profoundly, one by one. He knew every type of affliction, moral and physical: he experienced hunger and fatigue, the bitterness of misunderstanding, he was betrayed and abandoned, flagellated and crucified.” But, the Pope emphasized, “by saying “blessed are those who mourn”, Jesus does not intend to declare an unfortunate and burdensome condition in life to be happy. Suffering is not a value in itself, but a reality that Jesus teaches us to live with the correct attitude. There are, in fact, right ways and wrong ways to live pain and suffering. A wrong attitude is to live pain in a passive manner, letting go with inertia and resignation. Even the reaction of rebellion and rejection is not a correct attitude. Jesus teaches us to live the pain by accepting the reality of life with trust and hope, bringing the love of God and neighbour, even in suffering: and love transforms everything.”
Pope Francis remembered Fr. Luigi Novarese (1914-1984) as a a priest in love with Christ and with the Church and a zealous apostle of the sick.” “His personal experience of suffering, lived in childhood, made him very sensitive to human suffering,” he underlined. Novarese was aPiedmontese priest who was beatified a year ago in a mass presided by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. As a child he suffered bone tuberculosis. Once he was cured he was ordained a priest and even worked in the Vatican Secretariat of State at the invitation of the then substitute, Mgr. Giovanni Battista Montini. He studied Canon Law and founded numerous associations for the sick and disables. “He would always say: “The sick must feel that they are the authors of their own apostolate”. A sick person, a disabled person can become support and light for other people who suffer, in this way transforming the environment in which he lives. With this charism, you are a gift to the Church. Your suffering, like the wounds of Jesus, on the one hand are scandal for the faith but on the other hand are the verification of the faith, a sign that God is Love, is faithful, is merciful, is consoler. United to the risen Christ, you are “active participant(s) in the work of evangelization and salvation.” After the final blessing, he finished with a prayer to Mary: “She knows suffering and always helps us through difficult times.”
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