“It is not good that man should be alone” (cf. Gen 2:18)
Healing the Sick by Healing Relationships
XXXII World Day of the Sick, February 11
The story of cleansing the leper in today’s Gospel passage (Mk 1: 40-45) is yet another example of Jesus’ compassion for the sick and the isolated. Christ hears the cry of the man suffering this abhorrent disease, the leprosy that made him an outcast of the society and unclean according to the law of Moses: “If you wish, you can make me clean” (Mk 1: 40). The Divine Physician “moved with pity, stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him: I do will it. Be made clean. The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean” (Mk 1: 41-42). We see in the Gospels how people who were suffering, ill or possessed by demons were coming to Jesus from everywhere and “he cured many who were sick with various diseases” (Mk 1: 34). The healing ministry of Jesus was an important part of his proclamation of coming of the Kingdom of God, the Messianic times that bring about the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and life over death.
Today, on February 11, which is the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, the World Day of the Sick is observed in the Church.
The Marian shrine in the French city of Lourdes was the site of apparitions of Our Lady to 14-year-old St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. There were altogether 18 apparitions, from February 11-July 16, 1858. The message conveyed in the apparitions was to repent, do penance and pray for the sinners. The Lady revealed her identity by declaring: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. To confirm her true presence and her message, Mary instructed Bernadette to dig a hole in the mud by the Massabielle Grotto, from which a spring eventually flew. Many sick people received the gift of healing after having been washed in the Lourdes water. The first officially recognized miracle of Lourdes was healing of Catherine Latapie from a nearby town of Loubajac. In 1856, Latapie had fallen from a tree causing severe damage to her right hand. She suffered from ulnar nerve paralysis that was a consequence of a fracture of the forearm leaving two fingers in her right hand completely paralyzed. On March 1, 1858—while pregnant with her fourth child—she traveled to Lourdes. At dawn, she met Bernadette just before the twelfth apparition and then proceeded to the Grotto to pray. After praying, Latapie simply washed her hands in the water from the spring. Instantly, her hand became what it had been before the accident. That night she gave birth to a son who later became a priest.
Over the years, Lourdes has become the worldwide shrine visited especially by the sick. At present, some 6 million pilgrims come to Lourdes each year. Since 1858, more than 7,000 cures at Lourdes have been reported, more than 2,500 of which have been reviewed by medical personnel and deemed “medically inexplicable.” Pope St. John Paul II declared in 1992 that February 11 be annually observed as the World Day of the Sick.
This year, the Church holds this observance for the 32nd time. The theme for the World Day of the Sick 2024 and the title of Pope Francis’ message are words taken from Genesis: “It is not good that man should be alone (cf. Gen 2: 18). Healing the Sick by Healing Relationships”. Pope reminds us that we are created by God to live in community with others; isolation and abandonment causes suffering and can be frightening and even inhuman, especially for those who experience serious illness. Therefore, “the first form of care needed in any illness is compassionate and loving closeness. To care for the sick thus means above all to care for their relationships, all of them: with God, with others – family members, friends, healthcare workers – , with creation and with themselves… The sick, the vulnerable and the poor are at the heart of the Church; they must also be at the heart of our human concern and pastoral attention. May we never forget this!”
Our Lady of Lourdes, Health of the Sick, pray for us!
-Fr. Cyprian Czop, O.M.I.