Card Poola: with Mary in search of the weak
The Archbishop of Hyderabad, the Dalit prelate picked by Pope Francis for the College of Cardinals, offers his thoughts on World Day of the Sick, which falls on the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. This occasion “calls for prayer and closeness towards those who suffer” with “a new way of moving forward together.”
Hyderabad (AsiaNews) – The Catholic Church today marks World Day of the Sick, instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1992 on the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. On this occasion, we publish the thoughts of Card Anthony Poola, Archbishop of Hyderabad, the first Dalit[*] cardinal, chosen by Pope Francis in last year's consistory.
God’s revelation tells us that God is present among us. All the Marian apparitions – be they in Lourdes or Fatima or Vailankanni or Guadalupe or Medjugorje – point to who God is, and how we must turn towards God.
Bernadette beautifully sums up her experience of Marian apparitions at Lourdes: “I can’t explain to anyone what I saw, for however I try to explain, everyone understands in his or her own way. God and God’s mother could be understood only when each of us sees them face to face.”
At Lourdes Bernadette received a God experience. God experience happens to every one of us – at the reading of the word of God, or in participating the Holy Mass, or in making a novena, or in attending a retreat, or in our involvement with the liberation of the oppressed. And God works miracles even today. To perceive the miracles we need eyes of faith.
On this 31st World Day of the Sick, our Holy Father has taken the theme, “Take care of him: compassion as a synodal exercise of healing.” He in fact combines insights from three occasions: one, World Day of the Sick on Feb 11; two, his encyclical Fratelli Tutti; and three, the present synod for a synodal church 2021-2024.
He says, “Illness is part of our human condition. Yet, if illness is experienced in isolation and abandonment, unaccompanied by care and compassion, it can become inhumane.” He invites us to reflect on the fact that it is especially through the experience of vulnerability and illness that we can learn to walk together according to the style of God, which is closeness, compassion, and tenderness.
He uses the text of Ezekiel 34:3-4, and 15-16 to set the foundation: God’s compassion. God overthrows the shepherds who fed on the sheep, and places himself as the true shepherd with compassion and care. God comes in search of the vulnerable, the ill, the weak, and the oppressed.
In the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, through a creative interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Pope Francis invites us to be persons of compassion. In the parable, two travellers, considered pious and religious, see the wounded man, yet fail to stop. The third passer-by, however, a Samaritan, a scorned foreigner, is moved with compassion and takes care of that stranger on the road, treating him as a brother. In doing so, without even thinking about it, he makes a difference, he makes the world more fraternal.
When we are sick and ill, we feel abandoned and lonely. At times we may feel that God has abandoned us, or God has treated us unjustly. The World Day of the Sick calls for prayer and closeness towards those who suffer. Yet it also aims to raise awareness about God’s people, healthcare institutions and civil society with regard to a new way of moving forward together.
The Samaritan calls the innkeeper to “take care of him” (Lk 10:35). Jesus addresses the same call to each of us. He exhorts us to “go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37). We need to remember today the commitment of healthcare and social workers, family members and volunteers, through whom good stands up in the face of evil every day.
Today as we turn our eyes to Our Lady of Lourdes, we may imitate her in searching for the weak and the vulnerable. She herself experienced vulnerability at the foot of the cross.
May we include in our journey the sick and the ill. They shall be at the centre.
As we seek the intercession of Mary, Arogya Matha, Health of the Sick, let us entrust to her all who are sick – physically, mentally, and spiritually. Let us entrust to her our healthcare workers, family members, and volunteers that through them fraternal bond of communion be built up. Let us take care of each other through compassion, which is a synodal exercise of healing.
* Archbishop of Hyderabad
(Nirmala Carvalho contributed to this article)
[*] Dalits were once referred to as outcast or untouchable.
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