Meeting with thhe Sick in the Cathedral of Czestochowa (18 June 1983)

On Saturday, 18 June 1983, the Holy Father met with the sick in the Cathedral of Czestochowa, to whom he said, “Those who suffer, those suffering young people are a particular continuation of the suffering Christ.”

I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the welcome in this stationary temple, as my dear brother Monsignor Stefan, Bishop of the Church of Czestochowa, called it. This temple is at the same time the heart of the Church of Czestochowa, as the cathedral of this Church. The heart of Catholic Poland, Jasna Gora, can be reached through this heart of the Church of Czestochowa. I follow this path because, following Peter, I must bind on earth what is bound in Heaven; and on earth the Churches are linked to their Bishops; they are linked through the Cathedrals which constitute the heart of the diocesan communities; they are also linked through the Sanctuaries which constitute the heart of entire Nations and Peoples, just as Our Jasna Gora constitutes the heart of the Polish Nation, of the Church on Polish land. So, I thank you for this welcome, I thank you for the welcome in the Czestochowa Cathedral, named after the Holy Family, in the Cathedral that is well known to me, that is very dear to me, that has been visited by me many times. I am happy to be able to find myself here once again and to be able to once again begin the visit to Jasna Gora through the mystery of the Holy Family.

I want to express my great emotion for the encounter that I have had to experience in this cathedral since you have invited the sick, and especially young sick people. I say emotion because meeting the sick always brings with it a profound emotion: an emotion that is even inexpressible. It is not just a human emotion, but an emotion of human suffering, it is a Christian, evangelical, I would say mystical emotion.

In suffering the mystery of Redemption appears to us in a certain way, which in a particular way becomes present among us, becomes visible and palpable. Those who suffer, those suffering young people are a particular continuation of the suffering Christ, and the suffering Christ, Christ crucified, is our wisdom and our strength. Therefore, when I meet with you, dear brothers and sisters, dear children, I believe I encounter the divine strength and wisdom that exists in the Cross of Christ. I rely entirely on this strength and wisdom just as Saint Paul ensured that we announce the Crucified Christ, who is the wisdom of God and the strength of God. You help me, following the apostle, to think in the same way, and to announce the same way. You, dear sick people, in a certain sense prepare my soul to ascend to Jasna Gora. You are this atrium of purification before I go up there, before I find myself before the face of the Madonna of Jasna Gora, the Mother and Queen of our Nation; before I carry out this great celebration of the 600th anniversary in the name of the Church and the Nation. You are the hall of purification; through the meeting with you I experience this profound conversion to the mystery of Christ's Redemption with which I must fill myself so that I can present myself up there, in Jasna Gora, with all the interior commitment of faith, hope and love, which must fill me, so that I can with this faith, hope and love serve all the pilgrims who have come or who will come, as well as myself, who come here as a pilgrim.

So I am grateful first to the young people and then to all those who are participating in tomorrow's celebration for having kept me in this Cathedral of Czestochowa dedicated to the Holy Family, I am grateful to you for having come to meet me, for having brought here your suffering, your sacrifice and your prayer and for having supported me on the road that leads to this great sanctuary in the history of our People. I also entrust to your prayers and your sacrifice this pastoral service of mine in Poland and elsewhere.

Remember that every day I join you in the culminating point of the Eucharist, and that I always invite you to this moment; I invite all those who suffer and I invite you from here, from Czestochowa, so that we can, united in this world, live the mystery of the Eucharist ever more fruitfully; more fruitfully renew the Cross, the Death, the Resurrection of Christ in the sacramental, Eucharistic form.

I also greet all those present in the Cathedral: Bishops, representatives of the Chapter of Czestochowa, priests, nuns, all the faithful. I greet everyone gathered in front of the Cathedral.

Dear brothers, I come here to be one of you pilgrims, I too as a pilgrim. May our path be common, may our prayer be humble, may our love be powerful, may our hope be greater than anything that could hinder it.

I wish to give you my blessing together with the Bishop of Czestochowa and with my brothers in the Episcopate present here, the Cardinals, the Polish Primate, the Metropolitan of Krakow, the other guests, Cardinals and Bishops, so that the first station on my way to Jasna Gora.
 

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