Visit to the Leper House of Marituba, Belem (8 July 1980)

On 8 July 1980, the Holy Father visited the Leper House of Marituba in Belém, where he urged the patients to remember the sufferings of Christ, that “even when it weighs on the body, the cross of sickness carried in communion with that of Christ becomes a source of salvation, of life or of resurrection for the sick person himself and for others, for all of humanity.”

Dear children.

1. Since I announced my trip to Brazil and during the preparation for this trip, I have received a large number of letters from various leper colonies in this country inviting me to visit them. God knows how much I want to do that. Coming here to Marituba, meeting you and greeting you with fatherly affection, it is as if I were visiting all the leper colonies in Brazil right now. You reach out to them with my word to tell them how much I respect them, how much I think of them and pray for them.

Blessed, therefore, be God who grants us the grace of this meeting. It is in fact a grace for me to be able, like the Lord Jesus whose minister and representative I am, to go to meet the poor and the sick for whom he had a real predilection. I cannot, it is true, like him, cure the ailments of the body, but he will give me, out of his goodness, the ability to give some relief to spirits and hearts. In this sense, I want this meeting to be a grace for you too. It is in the name of Jesus that we are gathered here: that he be among us as he promised (cf. Mt 18:20).

2. When they first meet and want to make friends, people usually introduce themselves. Will it be necessary to do this? You already know my name and have a lot of information about me. But, since I intend to make friends with you, I make my introduction: I come to you as a missionary sent by the Father and by Jesus to continue proclaiming the kingdom of God which begins in this world but is only realized in eternity, to consolidate the faith of my brothers, to create a profound communion among all the children of the same Church. I come as a minister and unworthy vicar of Christ to watch over his Church; as humble successor of the apostle Peter, Bishop of Rome and pastor of the universal Church.

To Simon Peter, although weak and sinful like every human creature, the Lord Jesus had declared in a solemn moment that on him, as on a stable rock, he would build the Church (Mt 16:18). He also promised him the keys of the kingdom with the guarantee that whatever he bound or loosed on earth would be bound or loosed in heaven (cf. Mt 16:19). While he was about to return to the Father, it is again to Peter that he will say: "Feed my sheep, feed my lambs" (cf. Jn 21:15ff). I come as Peter's successor: heir to the mysterious and indescribable spiritual authority that had been conferred on him, but also to the tremendous responsibility attributed to him. Like Peter, I accepted to be the universal pastor of the Church, eager to know, love and serve all the members of the flock entrusted to me. I'm here to meet you. I must say that my affection for one and all is great. I'm sure I can, at least in some way, serve you.

3. And you, who are you? For me you are above all human persons, rich in the immense dignity that the condition of person gives you, each one rich in the personal, unique and unrepeatable physiognomy with which God made him. You are people redeemed by the blood of the one I like to call, as I did in my first letter written to the whole Church and to the world, the "Redeemer of man".

You are children of God, known and loved by him. You are now and always will be hereafter my friends, very dear friends. As friends, I would like to leave you a message on the occasion of this meeting that divine providence allows me to hold with you.

4. My first word can only be that of comfort and hope. I know very well that, under the weight of the disease, we are all tempted to give up. It is not uncommon to ask sadly: why this disease? What have I done wrong to have it? A look at Jesus Christ in his earthly life and a look at faith, in the light of Jesus Christ, on our own situation change our way of thinking. Christ, the innocent Son of God knew suffering in his own flesh. The passion, the cross, death on the cross tried him hard: as the prophet Isaiah had announced, he was disfigured, reduced to having no human appearance (Is 53:2). He neither veiled nor hid his suffering, on the contrary, when it was most atrocious, he asked the Father to remove the cup (cf. Mt 26:39). But the depths of his heart revealed a word: "Not my will, but yours be done" (Lk 22:42). The Gospel and the entire New Testament tell us that, accepted and lived in this way, the cross becomes redemptive.

Your life is no different. Illness is truly a cross, a sometimes heavy cross, a test that God allows in a person's life, within the unfathomable mystery of a design that escapes our ability to understand. But it must not be seen as blind fate.

Nor is it necessarily and in itself a punishment. It is not something that annihilates without leaving anything positive. On the contrary, even when it weighs on the body, the cross of sickness carried in communion with that of Christ becomes a source of salvation, of life or of resurrection for the sick person himself and for others, for all of humanity. Like the Apostle Paul, you too can affirm that you complete in your body what is lacking in Christ's sufferings, in favor of the Church (cf. Col 1:24).

I am sure that, seen in this light, illness, even if it is painfully mortifying, brings with it seeds of hope and a reason for new comfort.

5. My second word is a request, but even more an invitation and a stimulus: do not isolate yourselves because of your infirmity. All those who are interested in you with dedication, love and competence, even perhaps dedicating all their talent, time and energy to you, insist in saying that nothing is better than feeling deeply inserted in the community of the other brothers and not cut off from it.

We say much more to these brothers, with the strength of all our conviction: try to get to know your leper brothers, stay close to them, welcome them, collaborate with them, accept and arouse their collaboration. But we must say to you too: no reason should hold you back from entering the environment that surrounds you and opens up before you. Feel that you are members to the highest possible degree of the human community which is increasingly aware of needing you, as it needs each of its members.

To this community you can offer, on a human level, the contribution of the gifts you have received from God. Within natural limits, the field of this possible collaboration is quite vast and varied.

On the supernatural level which is that of grace, then, I wanted to remind you just now that, in communion with the mystery of the cross of Christ, even the cross of your suffering becomes a source of grace, of life and of salvation. It would be a great pain to disperse this capital of God's grace for any reason whatsoever. May it serve many people, especially the Church. Finding myself in the Amazon, where missionary work is intense and fruitful, of which you too receive the fruits, I dare to ask you: make your sick condition a missionary gesture of immense significance, transforming it into a source from which missionaries can draw spiritual energies to their work.

6. My third word is of trust: the Pope, together with the whole Church, esteems you and loves you. Before you, he undertakes to do everything in his power for you and in your favour. The Pope, even if he has to leave for new tasks according to the program of this visit and his demanding mission, remains spiritually with you: dear brother Monsignor Aristide Pirovano, your great friend, may the doctors, nurses, assistants who here they do their utmost, to be the Pope's representatives to you by doing all that he would do and as he would do if he could always remain here. For my part, I too rely on you: just as I ask for the help of the prayers of the monks and nuns and of many holy people so that the Holy Spirit may inspire and give strength to my pontifical ministry, so I ask for the precious help that can derive from the offering of your suffering and your illness. May this offer join your prayers, or rather, turn it into a prayer for me, for my direct collaborators, for all those who confide their afflictions and their pains, their needs and their intentions to me.

But why not begin this prayer right away?

Lord, with the faith you have given us, we confess to you
Almighty God, our Creator and Provident Father,
God of hope, in Jesus Christ, our Savior,
God of love, in the Holy Spirit, our Comforter!

Lord, trusting in your promises that do not pass,
we always want to come to you, to find relief in our pain in you.
However, disciples of Jesus as we are, let us not do as we wish,
but let your will be done in all of our living!

Lord, thankful for Christ's predilection
for lepers who have had the good fortune to come into contact with him,
seeing us in them... we also thank you for the favors
we receive in everything that helps us, gives us relief and comforts us :
we thank you for the medicine and for the doctors,
for the assistance and for the nurses, for the living conditions,
for those who console us and who are consoled by us,
for those who understand us and accept us and for the others .

Lord, grant us patience, serenity and courage;
grant us to live a joyful charity, out of love for you,
towards those who suffer more than us and towards those who,
not suffering, have not clarified the meaning of life.

Lord, we want our life to be useful, we want to serve:
to praise, thank, make reparation and implore, with Christ,
for those who adore you and for those who do not adore you, in the world,
and for your Church, scattered over all the earth.

Lord, by the infinite merits of Christ, on the cross,
"suffering servant", and our brother, with whom we unite,
we pray you for our families, friends and benefactors,
for the good result of the Pope's visit and for Brazil. So be it.

© Copyright 1980 - Vatican Publishing House

Copyright © Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Publishing House