Enriched by the gift of healing

On February 15, in the provincial house in Centocelle, the meeting with Jesus was repeated, who consoles, heals our frailty and offers us the fullness of the benefit of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the sick that we have received in community.

 "Jesus stopped and called them: «What do you want me to do to you?».  They answered Him: «Lord, may our eyes open!».  Jesus was moved, He touched their eyes and they immediately recovered their sight and followed Him. (Mt.20,32-34)

Jesus who is God with us and for us is the face that God wants to show us of Himself:

God created everything from nothing for the sake of the very life of creatures and of human being in particular; He recognized before every created thing that "it is good!"

Therefore, Jesus cannot remain indifferent to the sickness and suffering that exists in the world.  In this passage of St. Matthew, as elsewhere, Jesus is even moved by the blindness, need and evil of those blind. God made us capable, beautiful. Every organ and part of the body has such a functionality, that science never ceases to study and discover something more; every imperfection, disorder, damage is nothing more than the effect of the evil that entered into creation with sin. This is why Jesus often, when he heals, forgives sins first: every true healing always comes from the depths.

With these two blind persons Jesus does not even think of forgiving sin, He knows the human hearts. He is so involved in the pain of those blind people that He bears all the weight of their darkness, in that touch so much human and yet so divine, to return the sight immediately.

It is in the logic of God to fight against evil, to promote life, even through ways sometimes... This is why he also entrusts to the Church to continue work of Salvation on earth, an instrument of healing and particular attention to the sick: the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

Even Pope Francis has always been very attentive to the condition of the most fragile and suffering, of the disadvantaged, contrasting the culture of waste that rages. This is what Francis exhorts us on the day of the Sick 2023:

 «Take care of him» (Lk 10:35) is the Samaritan’s recommendation to the hotelier. Jesus also relaunches it to each one of us, and in the end, He exhorts us: «Go and do the same». As he pointed out in Fratelli tutti, «The parable shows us with what initiatives a community can be rebuilt starting from men and women who make their own the fragility of others, who do not allow a society of exclusion to be built, but they make themselves close and raise and rehabilitate the fallen person, so that the good is common» (n. 67). In fact, we were made for the fullness that is reached only in love.

Every Christian is called to this particular feeling for the sick, the elderly, but even more so is every Christian community, as the Lord’s presence in the concreteness of living...

So when Sr Cristiana proposed the celebration of the Anointing of the Sick to us sisters, she presented to us, first of all, the beauty of accompanying the most suffering sisters, elderly and sick, to receive this sacrament of healing and consolation.

 It was a very intimate moment for us, which made us feel closer to each other, especially close to the suffering sisters who were preparing to receive the anointing, some in a wheelchair, some on her feet; yes, because each one felt free to assess her health before God and to implore the gift of healing.