Pope Francis, convalescent, says experiencing the feeling of weakness and dependence on others

Pope Francis, 88, who continues to recover in Santa Marta, his residence in the Vatican, of the bilateral pneumonia for which he spent 38 days hospitalized, said that, through the disease, he is experiencing the feeling of “weakness” as well as the “dependence of others.”

“Dear of sick brothers and sisters, at this time in my life I share a lot with you: the experience of the disease, to feel weak, to depend on others for many things, to have the need for support,” said the Pontiff, who received the medical discharge just 15 days ago, on March 23.

On that occasion, Pope Francis, before returning to the Vatican, appeared for just over a minute to the fifth floor of the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital in Rome to greet and bless the faithful. Since that time, it has not reappeared in public.

In the homily he has prepared for the Mass of the Jubilee of the sick, but that has been read by the pre-effect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Mons. Rino Fisichella, the Holy Father shared his own experience of illness and acknowledged that “it is not always easy.” However, he assured that this reality, although painful, can be transformed into a space of deep communion with God and others.

“It is not always easy, but it is a school in which we learn every day to love and let us love, without pretending and without rejecting, without regretting and without despair, grateful to God and the brothers for the good we receive, abandoned and confident in what is yet to come,” he said.

Directing with special tenderness to the world of the sick, he pointed out that the “hospital room and the bed of the disease can be places where the voice of the Lord is heard”.

In addition, he released a special message for doctors, nurses and all health workers, to whom he thanked their delivery, inviting them to recognize in their vocation an opportunity for continuous conversion, concrete charity and living hope.

“While they serve their patients, especially the most fragile, the Lord offers them the opportunity to continually renew their life, nourishing her of gratitude, mercy and hope. He calls them to illuminate her with the humble awareness that there is nothing to suppose anything and that everything is the gift of God; said.

He also urged to live the presence of the sick “as a gift in their existence, to cure their hearts, purifying them of everything that is not charity and heating them with the burning and sweet fire of compassion.”

The Pontiff cited the example of Benedict XVI, “who gave us a beautiful testimony of serenity in the time of his illness.” And he also echoed his writings, specifically his encyclical Spe Salvi, in which he made it clear that “the greatness of humanity is essentially determined by its relationship with suffering.”

Pope Francis then made a clear appeal not to neglect the most fragile people and criticized the societies that place the sick on the margins.

“Let’s not relegate to the one who is fragile, moving it away from our life, as unfortunately we see that sometimes a certain type of mentality usually does today, let’s not apart the pain of our environments. Let’s make an opportunity to grow together, to grow hope thanks to the love that God has shed,” he said.

At the beginning of the homily, the Pontiff reflected on the words that God, through the prophet Isaiah, directs the people of Israel in the exile of Babylon, after Jerusalem was conquered and devastated by the soldiers of King Nebuchadnezzar II.

At that “difficult” moment, Mons. Fisichella appreciated when reading the text prepared by Pope Francis, the “horizon appears closed, the dark future, any frustrated hope”, but the Lord “invites to host something new that is born.”

Similarly, he reflected on the Gospel of the day, which tells the episode of the adulterous woman, which, he explained, “is destroyed” by moral condemnation.

However, although there is either there is hope for her, “God does not abandon her.”

“Jesus enters his life, defends her and rescues her from that violence, giving her the possibility of starting a new existence,” explained the pontiff, who called to renew, on the fortune, confidence in God.

“There is no exile, no violence, or sin, or any reality of life that can prevent him from being before our door and calling, willing to enter.

In this way, he assured that the disease is one of the “most difficult and hardest tests of life”, in which fragility is clearly perceived. “This can make us feel like the people in exile, or as the woman of the Gospel, deprived of hope in the future,” he said, after verifying that God never abandons.

In this new phase of the pontificate, Pope Francis has completely suspended his public agenda to avoid, by medical prescription, contact with groups of people who could commit their health again, since his immune system is very weak. In any case, the Catholic Church continues to rule, making important decisions, but delegating the tasks that require more effort to its collaborators.