Pope’s Jubilee message to 35,000 people who are ill and healthcare workers: "In sickness, God does not leave us alone and with Him we experience consolation"

"Illness can make us feel like people in exile, or like the woman in the Gospel: without hope for the future …” These words were written by Pope Francis for the homily of the Mass for the Jubilee of the Sick and the World of Healthcare, on Sunday 6 April in St. Peter's Square, which was presided over by the Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella. “But,” continued the Holy Father, “it’s not like that. Even in these moments, God does not leave us alone and, if we abandon ourselves to Him, precisely when our strength fails, we can experience the consolation of his presence". Around 35,000 pilgrims, including doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and sick people, participated in the Jubilee last weekend.

To the healthcare professionals present at the Mass in their white coats and uniforms, the Pope in his message reminded them that while they take care of patients, "especially the most fragile", the Lord "offers them the opportunity to continually renew your life, nourishing it with gratitude, mercy, and hope".

The Pontiff added: “Allow the presence of the sick to enter as a gift into your existence, to heal your heart, purifying it from all that is not charity and warming it with the burning and sweet fire of compassion".

His homily recognised the situation of fragility that he is sharing with so many people in this period. He wrote: "With you, dearest sick brothers and sisters, at this moment in my life I share a lot: the experience of infirmity, of feeling weak, of depending on others for so many things, of needing support. It is not always easy, but it is a school in which we learn every day to love and to let ourselves be loved, without demanding and without rejecting, without regretting and without despairing, grateful to God and to our brothers and sisters for the good we receive, ready and trusting in what is yet to come. The hospital room and the bed of infirmity can be places in which we hear the voice of the Lord who says to us: "Behold, I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Is 43:19). And thus our faith is renewed and strengthened".

The Holy Father, at the end of the Mass, unexpectedly came down to the front of the Basilica to personally greet all those present, and had words of great closeness for the sick people present.

The next great Jubilee event will be the Jubilee of Adolescents, which will be held from 25 to 27 April 2025.