Chief shepherd anoints those suffering with illness, offers hope on World Day of the Sick, celebrated near Our Lady of Lourdes' feast day
DETROIT — Suffering is transformed into a blessing when endured in union in Christ as a share of his cross, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron said Feb. 13 during the Archdiocese of Detroit's annual Mass for the World Day of the Sick at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
“In Christ, even sickness itself is redefined,” Archbishop Vigneron told the congregation, including individuals battling illnesses, their caregivers and family members as well as members of the Order of Malta.
“What the world judges as most abhorrent and the highest of tragedies — to be ill and headed toward death — has been by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, redefined," the archbishop said. "Christ, by his death and resurrection, has transformed suffering into a blessing. Not suffering for its own sake, of course, but suffering becomes a blessing in the kingdom of Christ when it is borne with a loving trust — a son or daughter's abandonment to the Father.”
World Day of the Sick, which falls on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, is celebrated on the Sunday closest to the feast when Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous, Archbishop Vigneron said.
“(The apparition at) Lourdes itself happened in a garage dump — that in this place that seemed so desolate, so abandoned, Christ sent his mother to say that we are not abandoned; we are not alone," the archbishop said. "Put it this way: Even in our garbage, Christ can be present. He can transform that place of contempt into something marvelous and filled with blessing. This is an important truth for all of us to proclaim. This is the good news.”
Christ’s transformation and healing touch can be felt through both sacraments that occurred during the Mass, the archbishop said: the Eucharist and the anointing of the sick. The anointing of the sick can be understood through the Scripture readings of the day, which focused on St. Luke’s version of the beatitudes, he said.
“We often lose sight of the fact that through the beatitudes, our Lord really turns the world upside down,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “He declares in the beatitudes that four things that look like calamities to the world are in fact great successes.”
Christ declares the things that the world abhors — poverty, hunger, sadness, unpopularity, sickness — are things that draw us closer to him and to the kingdom, Archbishop Vigneron said. Jesus himself was blessed in his own poverty, hungry and weeping because he trusted in the Father.
“Suffering in the life of the Christian Church and the life of Christians is a powerful vocation; a time when a disciple is called to live more deeply in union with Christ in the mystery of his own love and trust in the father,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “That is why the anointing of the sick has been given to us by Christ, why it is so important in the life of the Church: because this is a way in which sons and daughters of God the Father, the brothers and sisters of Jesus, are strengthened by the touch of Jesus, by the hand of Jesus.”
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