Pastoral Care – Page 2 – EDIZIONI L'ISOLA DI PATMOS

About the Coronavirus: and every plague pandemic in human history has always marked a renaissance: "The above, famine and war libera nos, Dominated"

27 February 2020/2 Comments/in Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

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ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS: PESTILENCE EACH AND PANDEMIC HAS ALWAYS MARKED THE HISTORY OF MANKIND A RENAISSANCE: «fish, FAME ET BEAUTIFUL FREE NOS, DOMINATED»

As we approach of a particularly extensive disease, this would seem to be the Coronavirus, Today we do not discuss more about spreaders, monat, hospitals and crucifers: the Manzoni era ended long ago. The discussion climbs, instead, of land much more rugged and treacherous, that involve the responsibility of the government and ruling classes immigrazioniste and health policies in place to limit the contamination. And in this scene there are plenty of buck, the deniers radicals, the conspiracy theorists, or certain Catholics who advocate the impending Apocalypse, to follow along with the devotees of conspiracy more refined and so to follow.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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«If you don't heal your brother who is sick, you are responsible for his blood ". The hospitality as identity of a community healing

25 May 2019/1 Comment/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

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"IF you do not heal YOUR BROTHER IS ILL, You ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS BLOOD^». THE HOSPITALITY OF IDENTITY AS A COMMUNITY healing.

[…] long before the phrase of Pope Francis on the image of the Church as field hospital, the first Christian communities were urged by the Holy Spirit to this form of care and assistance in the form of hospitality. The Church began as a friendly community - that is hospital - friendly place in which to recognize need of care, healing and reconciliation with God and the brothers: "Because of this, it is important to reach out to the sick, enabled them to experience the tenderness of God, integrate them into a community of faith and life in which they can feel welcomed, understood, incurred, worthy, in a word, to love and be loved.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Photo: Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp. Easter Vigil, procession with the Lumen Christi Hospital in courses Brotzu Cagliari

The Apostle Paul, It invites us to be considerate in hospitality with these words: "Rejoice in hope, patient in tribulation, persevere in prayer, solicitous for the needs of the brothers, Practice hospitality " [R 12, 1]

In the first century d.C at the entrance of some churches there was this warning:

«If you don't heal your brother who is sick, you are responsible for his blood " [cf. Beppino Cò the 7 spiritual stages of physical healing, pg. 6 ed. Villadiseriane].

I open this new article starting from this suggestion that I found in a small book which deals with the physical healing inserted into a spiritual healing path. While it can not verify the source of history more accurately, what struck me this sentence is not so much an invitation to healing the brother or the charism of healing itself, but the posting of such words re-entry of a church.

Reflecting on this, I was struck by this certainty: the Church was born to be healing communities, via santa where rid of their infirmities and enjoy the health and salvation that God gives to his children eagerly. In this you can see the realization of the words of the prophecy of Isaiah:

"Shall return the ransomed of the Lord

and come to Zion with jubilation;

everlasting joy upon their heads;

joy and happiness will follow them

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away " (cf. Is 35,10)

It is all the more necessary a missionary journey that puts in crisis today certain choices that often - as a community of believers - we prefer. The papal teaching helps us to bring clarity to this effect:

"In fact, the Church over the centuries has strongly felt service to the sick and suffering as an integral part of its mission and not only has it favored the flourishing of various works of mercy among Christians, but he also expressed from his bosom many religious institutions with the specific purpose of promoting, organize, improve and extend the assistance to the sick. missionaries, for their part, in conducting the work of evangelization, They have consistently associated with the preaching of the Good News with the assistance and care for the sick. " (cf. personal concern, 1)

We must therefore take note how long before the phrase of Pope Francis on the image of the Church as field hospital, the first Christian communities were urged by the Holy Spirit to this form of care and assistance in the form of hospitality.

The Church began as a friendly community - ie hospital - friendly place in which to recognize need of care, healing and reconciliation with God and the brothers:

"Because of this, it is important to reach out to the sick, enabled them to experience the tenderness of God, integrate them into a community of faith and life in which they can feel welcomed, understood, incurred, worthy, in a word, to love and be loved. For them - as for each other - contemplating Christ and letting themselves be "looked at" by him is an experience that opens them to hope and pushes them to choose life (cf. Dt 30,19)» (cf. Tarcisio Mezzetti, Welcoming the weary and the oppressed, ed. Elledici, pag. 11].

Moreover:

"In communion with the crucified and risen, with the one who has experienced pain and death significantly, the Church becomes hospitable inn, lap friendly where life, in its entirety, is respected, defense, loved and served, place of hope, where any weary pilgrim and sick, seeker of the meaning of what he is experiencing, You can live healthy and saving his suffering and his death, and writing a significant chapter in its history of alliance with others and with God " [cf. Luciano Sandrin, church, community healing, pg 77, Ed. St. Paul].

The Church can not give up this essential feature of its identity, which represents a model is essentially therapeutic service through diaconia of ecclesial communion.

Ecclesial communion - for the Church of all time - it is the biggest and most difficult challenge to generate a discipleship that conforms to the image of Christ [cf. RM 8,29]. Ecclesial communion is in fact certainty of the presence of Christ, not only a sign of his loving assistance [CF. Mt 18,20].

To be in communion among us - and then enable the resources to be able to bring healing to others - it is essential to be in communion with Christ, pacificarmi with him.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, addressed to Cardinal Angelo Comastri, It was very clear in this regard: "My son, without God we are too poor to help the poor!», wanting to paraphrase these words in the orientation of our reflection we come to affirm as: without God we are too sick to help the sick!

Jesus gives us a hint to heal and figure out if we got to be in full communion with him: mutual love [cf. GV 13,35]. We can also surprise us, but not a telltale sign of the presence of Christ in the disciple the number of communions received or made pilgrimages or alms bestowed, not because these things have no value, rather! In fact in human villainy, I can draw near to communion in a state of spiritual disorder, make a pilgrimage with dissipated soul, or bestow alms for personal gain.

But I never, never am able to love each other and to feel respect for him if they are not in communion with Christ. I will readily smascherabile and prey of my weaknesses I do not live this communion in the authenticity.

Jesus challenges us to a land where it is impossible to cheat. For this reason, ecclesial communion was the pride and the torment of the first Christians, the blessed Apostle Peter the recommended path in the hospitality: "Be hospitable to one another, without murmuring " [cf. 1PT 4,9], and Paul on the path of mutual esteem:

"Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another " [cf. RM 12,10].

The Church hospital, It becomes a place of welcome when Christ is received with all the kindness; place of esteem and respect, when we recognize beloved children of the Father [cf. MC 1,11].

The therapeutic interventions of the Church is given by obedience to the Word, as I was able to say in another of my contributions, [cf. item, WHO], that while faith is proclaimed arouses, increases the hope, It invites to charity and produces therapeutic benefits. He says the evangelist Mark:

"And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord acted together with them and confirmed the Word with the signs that accompanied it " [cf. MC 16,20].

This statement which concludes the second Gospel it's a unique throughout the New Testament, Christ works together with the community of believers so that in the ecclesial communion ARISING OUT preaching fruitful with the gift of faith and healing.

In the Christian community after Easter one of the most eloquent manifestations of the presence of the Risen was made right from the healings - as physical recovery - and the liberation - as a spiritual restoration -.

Stay in the Church it means clearly perceiving the living presence of Jesus who restores us to health by entrusting us to a community that is made by the Holy Spirit capable of protecting us after being collected by the Lord.

It is the evocative image of the Good Samaritan that St. Augustine sums:

"This inn will be the home from which they will migrate until, fully redone in health, we will not come into the kingdom of heaven " [cf. St. Augustine, The word is, 131, 6, PL 38, 732].

Following the example of the Good Shepherd that leaves the ninety-nine sheep to find the lost [cf. LC 15,6], it is necessary that the whole Church, in its lay and ministerial component, you find and go back to looking for the sick with the freshness and enthusiasm of apostolic times.

A Church truly hospitable, dilates her womb so that the weak, the sick and malnourished can recover in the light of the Risen. The Church must respond to a divine imperative: take your hand and look after the sick waiting for Christ [cf. LC 10,35].

The Church hospitable communities and healing, gathered around the Savior in ecclesial communion, acquires a pastoral style that intends to operate and interact in accordance with the dignity of the baptismal and ministerial priesthood because

"In both cases,, the ministry is realized as a charism serviceable, implemented by the community: the richness of the gifts of the Spirit in the ecclesial body is such that not only the whole Church is to be characterized as a ministerial community, but the various personal or even communal forms of ministeriality never by themselves exhaust the charismatic possibilities that believers are invested with by those who blow where they want " [cf. Bruno Forte, The Trinity Church. Essay on the mystery of the Church, communion and mission, pag. 304, St. Paul, Cinisello Balsamo (Milan) 1995].

Cardinal Elio Sgreccia It amplifies and better defines these words, referring them to the specific ministry of health:

"It's certainly more ecclesial bring evangelization aid, of sacramental grace, of Christian charity, the fact redemptive to patients through priests, deacons, Religious / e, lay people who not only through the chaplain. To the point that, if the priests were not lacking, we should prefer this formula to the one that sees only the chaplains working in the hospital " [cf. Elio Sgreccia, The hospital chaplaincy, a draft pastoral community, in Together to serve, 3 (1990), pag. 43]».

Come inside of of the Christian community nobody - but nobody - should feel entitled to exclude the suffering caregiving: since this exclusion would bring a mortal wound to communion, action of the Holy Spirit, the real presence of Christ among his, to the urgent longing of every man who - since the time of Abel - challenges faith about the reasons for suffering, innocent blood, the pain that has the right to find a warm heart and open arms.

Cagliari, 25 May 2019

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The most terrible cancers, and difficult to heal are the diseases that prevent us from being witnesses of Christ [Objection reflection: "The lack of forgiveness"]

10 March 2019/2 Comments/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

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THE MOST TERRIBLE AND DIFFICULT CANCER TO HEAL ARE THE DISEASES THAT PREVENT US FROM BEING WITNESSES OF CHRIST

[ IIIª REFLECTION: Lack of forgiveness ]

Let's start with a trivial finding: because we feel resentment and fail to forgive? Simply because we internally relive the evil that has been done to us, mulling it over in our hearts. The memory of the offense caused - in this case - no longer works to reach a resolution but works to reiterate the offense, which over time becomes chronic and remains calcified as an obsession in our soul.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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the cartoons of Gioba [John Berti, Veronese presbyter] original in gioba.it WHO

The third pathology spiritual which I will discuss is related to the tendency not to grant forgiveness easily, and it is very widespread. It does not spare the lay faithful like consecrated persons. Like this, as a priest dedicated to the ministry of confessor,I often find myself probing this aspect within the life of penitents who approach the precious sacrament of reconciliation.

I assist like this most of the time to a kind of spiritual schizophrenia, indeed, if on the one hand one wants to obtain God's forgiveness at any cost - given the proliferation of trends merciful - this desire, however, does not correspond to an equally desired grant of forgiveness towards others. The search for forgiveness and the rigidity in granting it certainly constitutes a paradox in the life of many men and women who live the faith..

As a confessor, I must admit that the most painful reality consists in taking note of how the lack of forgiveness is hardly perceived as a sin to confess, and sometimes it is not even understood as condition not which conforms to the image of Christ [cf. 1PT 2,23]. Every day reciting the prayer of the Our Father, we are faced with a clause of ascetic perfection that asks God to remit our shortcomings, to the extent that we make ourselves bearers of forgiveness towards those who have offended us. So let's try to be careful about what we ask in prayer, in fact, God takes seriously these words which are not of man but of Christ, this is what the version of the Our Father in the Gospel of St. Matthew that says so teaches us: "Forgive us our debts, as we also remit them to our debtors " [cf. Mt 6,12], that of the Gospel of Saint Luke instead: "Forgive us our sins, in fact we too forgive all our debtors " [cf. Lk 11,4]. The differences are minimal, but the substance does not change: the Christian is recognized by how he forgives, that is, by the way in which he exercises his own justice not according to the logic of the world but according to the logic of the Gospel [cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 2838; Compendium n. 594].

The Our Father has always been a problematic prayer - this was the case for Sant’Agostino - but this problematic nature is not synonymous with the impossibility of achieving what he asks, if anything, of resistance to grace, that is, an indication of a sick human heart.

There are so many people who say: "I don't forgive" or "I forgive but I don't forget". They are sentences extrapolated from their context and from the emotional charge with which they are pronounced, but which really contain a profound truth. And with this reflection of mine I want to try to answer precisely these two objections.

I. DIO FORGIVES, NOT ME: A GOAL THAT EXCEEDS L'MAN.

That man was a disaster in forgiving the Blessed Apostle Peter understood this well [cf. Mt 18,21-22], when turning to Jesus he asks how many times it is lawful to forgive one's offender. Peter questions Jesus about the legitimacy of a moral act foreseen by the law, but the master responds by overturning the figure of Lamec's revenge in the positive [cf. GN 4,23-24]: “I don't tell you up to seven times, but seventy times seven ". With this unsettling answer, Jesus - bearing in mind all the symbolic value of the numbers seven and seventy - wants to make Peter understand that forgiveness is not a moral act that touches on legal obligation but on grace. The next parable of the merciless servant, illustrates very well the overrun problem and the correct hermeneutics of the thought of Jesus expressed to Peter [cf. Mt 18,23-35].

Forgiveness taught by Christ to the disciples reaches its summit on Calvary and lives on the mystique of the encounter with the Father, author of grace and therefore of pardon [cf. LC 23,34]. Forgiveness means returning to God, allow him to make us new. The holy King David, aware of this need for conversion and renewal in the spirit that directs towards forgiveness, in the Miserere he becomes the bearer of a precise request «Create in me, hate, a pure heart renews a steadfast spirit in me " [cf. Shall 51,12].

The use of conversion, necessary to be docile to grace and to soften the heart, it allows us to be forgiven and to forgive in turn. He who forgives, indeed, he is pardoned and is aware of having to live in a perennial desire for conversion. A generous will with a Pelagian flavor is not enough to fully implement forgiveness. Daily experience teaches that, in most cases, I can try to isolate the offender and the offender, perhaps even groped to forget, but that still does not mean forgiving.

I usually say to penitents that to forgive is to have, towards those who have offended us, the same gaze that God the Father has towards us when we kneel before the priest confessor. It means having the authentic experience of Luke's Merciful Father [cf. LC 15,11-32], who grants forgiveness, seen almost as impossible by the younger son, without dwelling on the reasons for the return and without the constraint of a stable return to the paternal home. This is precisely the correct way to exercise Christian forgiveness, so much so as to strengthen the credibility of our faith and of the proposal that Jesus makes to every disciple [cf. (C). Theobald, Christianity as a style. A way of doing theology in postmodernity, I-II, Bologna, EDB, 2009]. I can only share, at this point, the excellent thought of Alessio Rocchi, when it states that:

“Having a guts of mercy does not mean being spineless, but rather have an extra strength (or of grace, ed). In this sense, forgiveness is redemption, not negation or reduction of evil but his own revision. It is no miracle, no effortless action performed by a mighty magician or an almighty god, but a severe test of earthly existence, through looks that (King)they fit into a relationship, by words that (King)integrate into a story " [cf. A. Rocchi, The time of forgiveness, Aporias of forgiveness between philosophy and theology, p. 97, Just - Studies and research, 2015].

Precisely because forgiveness is a redemptive moment which leads back to an intimate and new relationship, it is a theological place where it is possible to experience the newness promised by God through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah [cf. Is 43,19]; that is to see the birth of a road in the desert in which it is possible to follow new situations, and in which man can move in full communion with the Father without the fear of feeling vulnerable or naked [cf. GN 3,11].

Forgiveness means building new ways, therefore the relationship that is created between the offender and the offender has nothing to do with the relationship preceding the wrong, but it is a transfigured relationship in which God reveals himself. By studying the dynamics of forgiveness to which God invites man, we are thus led back to the reflection on the eschatological dynamics of life beyond life.

In my ministry as a hospital chaplain it is common practice to assist the dying and their families. The most painful knot that the dying patient has to cut before the definitive leave is that of granting forgiveness or accepting forgiveness. A similar test must also be faced by the patient's family. Leaving aside here, the reasons and causes for the debts to be forgiven before death, it is necessary to dwell on the need that the dying person has to die reconciled. Reconciled with God and therefore reconciled with the brothers he has offended or who have been a cause of suffering for him.

The episode of the Good Thief dictates our in-depth analysis. The Gospels testify how Jesus was crucified between two thieves [cf. MC 15,27]: we know how the Greek term λήστοι [history] identify a political criminal - today we will say a terrorist - rather than a thief or a general criminal. The situation that arises on Calvary in the eyes of the Romans is clear: the execution of two political prisoners together with Jesus seen as a troublemaker and subversion of the people of Israel. But here we are in the midst of agony, one of these enemies of Rome, now nearing the end, he turns to Jesus and - recognizing him as the Lord and at the same time in need of conversion and reconciliation for a life of crime, hatred and grudges - he exclaims: "Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom " [cf. LC 23,42].

These words that allow us to understand how

«Forgiveness is - once again - both requested and offered. To read and reread them they sound like three graces. Thank you, of I ask thank you, I ask your forgiveness because my life hasn't been that great. Thank you, of I do thank you, I forgive you for your impotence, for your not coming down from the cross, for your don't let me go down with you. I thank you and accept you for who you are, putting aside my disappointment with you. I grant you the grace not to ask you for a miracle, not to swear - and I would have many reasons - about mine and your fate. This crucified evildoer asks to be forgiven through the question of a memory, it seems forgive through the recognition of one's punishment, decide to to forgive silencing their legitimate curses and silencing the miraculous claims of the condemned comrade " [cf. A. Rocchi, The time of forgiveness, Aporias of forgiveness between philosophy and theology, p. 95, Just - Studies and research, 2015].

The dialogue of the repentant thief with Jesus it is placed on the horizon of life that never sets, of a very clear eschatological hope, we all need. The desire that this condemned man has to live is very evident, and it is equally evident in him the awareness that dying without asking and granting forgiveness, it affects the future life with the aggravating circumstance of the conclusion of an earthly life in an unnecessary tragedy. The only hope not to die eternally - in oblivion, among the ghosts of a personal story that speaks of violence, destruction and hatred - is the blessing that comes with forgiveness. Although death poses as a lady - as the singer-songwriter Branduardi recalls in one of his famous ballads [cf. video WHO] - forgiveness before farewell wins over death, and it can already be a deposit of eternity, redemption of a ruined existence, guarantee of healing towards oneself and towards others. Moreover, it would be paradoxical for the Christian to begin his new life in Paradise with various slopes following it. A full life [cf. GV 10,10] it is synonymous with a fully reconciled life, a half-life is on the contrary the expression of a slowdown that deprives us of communion with God and with our brothers, a friction that will have to be recomposed or atoned in some other way.

(II). GOOD MEMORY TO FORGIVE

We are sincere, after receiving an offense it's hard to put a stone on it. Many would like to put a stone on the offender, but this is not civilly and Christianly acceptable. Then there are people who invite us to forget and pretend nothing has happened. They end up being inopportune comforters like the three friends of wise Job [cf. Gb 3,ss], and they do us no good service. For this reason - as mentioned earlier - we need God's grace along with a constant and explicit prayer request, so that the Lord heals our wound and gives us the time necessary to be converted to forgiveness. But achieving forgiveness includes the ability to have a good memory, in fact, completely forgetting the offense - an unlikely option - would deprive us of the possibility of granting forgiveness and therefore of achieving peace and that blessing which is a guarantee for a new beginning of life.

Let's start with a trivial finding: because we feel resentment and fail to forgive? Simply because we internally relive the evil that has been done to us, mulling it over in our hearts. The memory of the offense caused - in this case - no longer works to reach a resolution but works to reiterate the offense, which over time becomes chronic and remains calcified as an obsession in our soul.

One of the symptoms of those who do not experience forgiveness it is the feeling of having a weight in the heart, and that feeling often carries on for years. The philosopher Paul Ricoeur said:

"Authentic forgiveness does not imply the oblivion of the events themselves, but a different way of signifying a debt […] which paralyzes the memory and consequently the ability to recreate ourselves in a new future " [cf. R. Kearney M. Dooley, Issues of ethics: contemporary debates in philosophers, Armando Publishers, 2005, p. 40; to complete the thought cf. also P. Ricoeur, To remember, forget, to forgive. The enigma of the past, The Mill, Bologna 2004].

This fixation of memory on the offense it is deleterious, when memory needs to concentrate on the offense it is only to initiate a liberation process that you condone, piece by piece, the wrong suffered.

Sometimes, to overcome the obsession together with the anxiety of forgiveness not granted, there is a tendency to replace resentment with indifference, but this is a false remedy. The medicine of "the eye does not see, heart doesn't hurt ", not only is it not Christian but it becomes a subtle and terrible way to lead the brother to death by exiling him from his own existence.

The set of processes just described they help us understand the sentence as a whole: "I can't forgive!». Really the person is unable to forgive, because this offense has hardened, sclerotizzata, traditional medicines are no longer enough but surgery is urgent. The urgent intervention consists in associating memory with the presence of God. A word that recurs a lot in the Old Testament is "remember", the verb that connects directly to people's memory, of things and events. But for the biblical hagiographer, remembering translates into memorial. Simply said, the memorial is remembering together with God.

Remember those situations and of those events in which God revealed himself - and still reveals himself - in his power, enough to work wonders for the benefit of man. The memorial is therefore more than just a memory, it is remembering through faith, restore a well-defined theological identity, who sees in God the redeemer and in man a creature to be redeemed and redeemed.

To forgive as a Christian I have to memorialize, that is, remembering together with God, see clearly the offenses and wounds, so that a providential gaze is formed within which the Spirit of God - living memory of the Church [cf. GV 15,26] - work so that every offense and wound is translated into an occasion for praise. As a memorial, I see the person who hurt me, the positives, the good intentions realized, the shipwrecked good intentions, the inevitable contradictions and inconsistencies. I can see in the offender no longer an enemy to fight but a person in need of help because he too is wounded and thirsty for redemption. In the memorial I also perceive my responsibilities well, I take the awareness that perhaps I have facilitated certain behaviors in the other and reduce the tendency to see myself as a scapegoat.

The memorial is an examination of conscience with which, as for Abraham, God allows me to become an intercessor towards those who have made themselves hostile [cf. GN 18,20-32], without closing one's eyes to the evil inflicted and received and with the tendency to make God's merciful justice triumph.

[end of IIIª meditation]

Cagliari, 10 March 2019

"You received, freely give ". XXVII World Day of the Sick

11 February 2019/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

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"FREE YOU RECEIVED, FREE DATES ». XXVII WORLD DAY OF THE SICK

Watching for example Holy Mother Teresa of Calcutta, inspiration behind the World Day of the Sick in this year which will be celebrated solemnly in Calcutta, the assistance to the sick can only be effective if the first bow our knees and learn to communicate adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Santa Teresa of Calcutta

The theme of the Day of the Sick XXVIIª of this year It is focused on the gratuity and the logic of the gift, following the evangelical reference of St. Matthew's Gospel [cf. 10, 8]. In his greeting, the Holy Father underlines how the gift of life implies the recognition of gratuitousness and the same care and protection of human life over time the disease can only play in the all-encompassing donation of person in the likeness of the Good Samaritan [Official text, WHO]. The Pontiff's suggestion allows us to broaden the discourse through some very important ideas.

THE SUPREMACY OF GOD OF LIFE

Santa Teresa of Calcutta

First of all, recognize life as a gift It means recognizing the real giver who is God. St. James, in his letter, He tells us that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father" [cf. GC 1,17], This first reference shows well how God, as real father, it is also true author of the gift of life. Indeed, the creative act of God, It is intimately tied to its authorship and that measure can not be understood without this category. The God of Jesus Christ does not resemble at all the cold Demiurge by Plato in Timeo; it's not even the creator of the universe of the Gnostic cults or detached largest watchmaker so dear to the Enlightenment. The creative act of God is a father's act and he creates communicating himself, his paternity [cf. At 17,28].

From these early consideration, it is easy to say how life implies, to be generated, a father and mother figure - although today this evidence is going through a deep crisis -. Scripture, very wisely, teaches that God becomes knowable to man and as a father and as a mother [cf. Ef 3,14; Is 49,14-15].

His paternal primacy of God of all life, challenges the man to become the guardian [cf. GN 2,15; 4,9] and to protect it in front of the scrap culture, of violence and indifference that is the result of contemporary individualism and social fragmentation.

Santa Teresa of Calcutta

The dialogue that the Holy Father points out be necessary as a presupposition of the gift, It must not be reduced only to the horizontal dimension of fraternity among men, but first he must get to the encounter with God verticalism. It is therefore necessary to lift his head to the Lord in order to be sure to see the man for what is, and so lead them to salvation.

The mystery It is just an example of how the divine vertical relationship humbles himself to reach the horizontality of the human nature in need of healing and resurrection [cf. Fil 2,7]. So the dialogue is fruitful, only if we accept the challenge of dialogue with God and the acceptance of God's Word made flesh, which reveals the ultimate paternity of God the giver of life in abundance [CF Jn. 10,10]. Without dialogue with the Lord, the comparison between men threatens to stop utopia, political ideology, demagogy, the utilitarian logic and the market, the business strategy, depersonalizing the new ethical doctrines; and today, unfortunately, the scope of health pays the price for this type of "calm" and "fraternal relation".

(II)

THE CHURCH, WOMB OF DIALOGUE AND CARE

Santa Teresa of Calcutta

It is in the Church which implements the recognition of that brotherhood that there is in being granted sons through the Son. If Christ had not done in solidarity with the man up to the total gift of self, the human condition would have been characterized by many lost and fragmented individuality [cf. MC 6,34]. It is in the Church that the Holy Spirit - the Lord, the giver of life - educates the children of God to unity and mutual assistance [cf At 4,32] and the ability to participate in the gift of life as a rich relationship with God, and how to cooperate with his paternity. It is still in the Church that we find the mother's womb that in the liturgical baptismal font where we taste a new brotherhood that shines the dignity of the children beloved by the Father [cf. MC 1,11].

The church, before the world, thus becomes the banner of primary and merciful love that becomes concrete only in obedience to the command of the Son of God and our brother Jesus Christ: "I was given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And here, I am with you always;, until the end of the world " [Mt 28,18-20].

The mandate of Christ, at the end of the first Gospel, far from propaganda, proselytism, It ensures a continuous fraternal assistance to the Church, It is a gift of grace that the Christian has to be rescued and healed by learning obedience to the will of God in Mary - Salvation of the sick - he has his shining example and Safe.

Cagliari, 11 February 2019

The most terrible cancers, and difficult to heal are the diseases that prevent us from being witnesses of Christ [IIª reflection: The lukewarmness]

5 February 2019/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

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THE MOST TERRIBLE AND DIFFICULT CANCER TO HEAL ARE THE DISEASES THAT PREVENT US FROM BEING WITNESSES OF CHRIST

[ (II)ª REFLECTION: The lukewarmness ]

Many church communities are infested with this type of disease: lukewarmness. Tutto is contaminated by this disease: fraternal relations, love life, the economics, the selection and election of community leaders, liturgical life, the charity …

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Fragility, Roman work of painter Anna Boschini, It is from the catalog of Mondadori Art, 2019 [cf. Vitarte Gallery, WHO]

I challenge readers from The Island of Patmos never to have heard in Church - including groups of laity, religious communities, priests or curial environment - expression: "It has always done so".

This sentence, far from wanting to preserve tradition - the real one, no traditionalism - is actually the biggest threat to the growth of the Church community. Behind 'has always done well', It hides the trap that prevents the Christian to be an authentic witness of the risen Lord.

Here then is to break into the second spiritual sickness: the lukewarmness. You get to contracting this disease when we take the habit of doing things for the Lord routine. As well as teaching the old manuals of spirituality, lukewarmness may cover all or incipient the perfect.

It seems strange, but often we can discover us lukewarm just after taking a sufficient degree of fervor and union with the Lord. Indeed, closing the grace or the Holy Spirit's inspirations, They are characterized as hazardous elements that draw them to the lukewarm; as well as the crystallization in a faith that satisfies a purely human vision. In this case, the complacency of an artificial faith takes over the "new wine" (cf. MC 2, 22) the Lord wants to pour with plenty in my life and I will see jailed me to repeat the same pattern that will drain the vitality of the Gospel, leading me spiritual flattening.

wanting to hazard a definition of lukewarm we can say that: is repetitive devotion to the work of man that is opposed to the virtue of religion which consists of a readiness of mind toward God. And the Word of God is clear, about the condemnation of apathy and lukewarm condemnation of man:

"I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot! But because you are lukewarm, that is, you are neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth " (cf. AP 3,14-16).

After the storm, Roman work of painter Anna Boschini

Many ecclesial communities They are infested with this type of disease and everything is contaminated by this disease: fraternal relations, love life, the economics, the selection and election of community leaders, liturgical life, the charity … Often, in front of a fair appeal before this soporific lifestyle, There is justified by saying: "What harm do? My prayers try to say them, Sunday Mass more or less follow her, what else should I do?». What is missing in these people and these communities is a holy restlessness to know Jesus and to make him loved.

The apathy is recognized by several symptoms, byiamone with someone: the first symptom, It is the normalization. Today we have a tendency to standardize everything and then to justify everything. For example sin. Normalize sin is to recognize that God's love wound, because it is accomplished by many and with a certain frequency, It loses its problematic. Or they tend to normalize sinful acts minimizing them: "I committed peccadilloes, I had a passioncella, I kept the bad habit '.

. .

Challenge, Roman work of painter Anna Boschini

The warm tends to normalize and to minimize the reality that surrounds him with the illusion of bringing peace and mercy. It is self-convinced that there is nothing left to improve in your life because - after all - has reached a stable equilibrium reassuring. However, Jesus in the Gospel does not praise the tepid demand but raising the level of discipleship toward a justice empowered by sanctifying grace:

"I will indeed say: unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, never enter the kingdom of heaven " [cf. Mt 5,20].

The third symptom of apathy is doubt, son of lukewarmness, who the tepid man has a great propensity to doubt - not because he is a skeptic convinced - but because the question allows him to not take a clear position on faith and relationship with God. Often it is usually repeated phrases like these: "I think I'm a believer but I have always been many unresolved doubts about faith ', and although he is chosen in a good accompaniment which tends to settle certain problematic, doubts persist anchored to the will of the person. To which come Moses, the lukewarm who doubts, It is unable to enter the Promised Land in which he fully realizes the relationship with God [cf. Dt 32,48-52]. It is content to see the spiritual reality from afar. There is a substantial difference, however,, that Moses became a source of shame and emphasizes a certain incompleteness to their vocation; in warm doubt it is conceived as relief that relieves, Once again, the problem of God.

Meeting to freedom, Roman work of painter Anna Boschini

Fourth symptom of apathy It is the free rein of concupiscence. The man who is immersed in lukewarm, soon lost the reference to the person of God, the ability to renounce himself and status new man Saint Paul calls for the man who has been redeemed by Christ [cf. Mt 16,24; MC 8,34; LC 9,23; Ef 4,24]. With the proliferation of various disorders in the soul that makes human nature far from grace, the warm is a slave of lust that he himself helped to feed. Here, then, that theso in lust it leads to the maturation of some very dangerous fruit - the seven deadly sins - that lead to ever greater moral disorders, much to spoil the beauty of man created by God. This lust leads man to regress to a condition that enslaves their instincts and passions.

In the past the holy fathers of monasticism Evagrius Ponticus, John Damascene, Gregory of Nyssa, Antonio Abate since most expert of the human soul, They had worked out different ways to fight the deadly sins, in addition to the constant vigilance of the heart, It was necessary evangelization of conscience, thoughts and feelings.

With this second contribution which he sought to analyze the spiritual sickness of apathy, You want to warn the Christians so that there is always a steady progression in the journey of knowledge of the Lord, because as rightly teaches St. Augustine, the not advance the cause of God means going back. And because the desire for God's holiness for all his children [cf 1Ts 4,3], we can only fight the disease of apathy that cloaked nowadays of doing good and tolerance reaps many victims in the Church.

[After the Secondª meditation]

Cagliari, 5 February 2019

The most terrible cancers, and difficult to heal are the diseases that prevent us from being witnesses of Christ [1st The sadness]

20 January 2019/7 Comments/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

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- Pastoral care of health -

THE MOST TERRIBLE AND DIFFICULT CANCER TO HEAL ARE THE DISEASES THAT PREVENT US FROM BEING WITNESSES OF CHRIST

[ 1st The sadness ]

It always affects of sad to see Christians, He was always struck. In the same way, it strikes me to see sullen priests and religious people. This is because it is a blatant contradiction in those who should announce the Easter. When he celebrates Mass, when I drive a prayer, or when you simply walk into a church, I like to stop and observe people. I observe that I too, I need encouragement from those who live a strong faith and have an intimate relationship with God. And while often orsservo, here ... long faces!

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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sad clown …

With this new article I will start a cycle of reflections on the most dangerous spiritual illnesses for the life of a Christian. As always I want to quote the Word of God, taking as inspiration a Gospel passage that I've got to also mention other times in my writings on our Patmos Island:

"And here, in that very day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, at about eleven kilometers from Jerusalem, and they are talking with each other about all that had happened. While they are conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him " [cf. LC 24,13-16].

In verse 16 it is evident a certain blindness heart and mind, this means that there is something in these two disciples that prevents them from recognizing the risen Lord. There are indeed some soul diseases that separate us from Christ and that prevent us from doing our novelty of the Gospel for this to transform our lives and that of others. It is therefore in these terms that I wish present the first spiritual sickness: the sadness.

It always affects of sad to see Christians, He was always struck. In the same way, it strikes me to see sullen priests and religious people. This is because it is a blatant contradiction in those who should announce the Easter. When he celebrates Mass, when I drive a prayer, or when you simply walk into a church, I like to stop and observe people. I observe that I too, I need encouragement from those who live a strong faith and have an intimate relationship with God. And while often orsservo, here ... long faces!

sad clown …

Let us first understand a thing: qT his kind of sadness is not given by the reverses of life that inevitably we all find support. The sadness of which I speak, It is mixed with resignation, It is a sadness that is often despair, depression, static, docility which - as we want with mystical masks and sliced air holiness - always emerges afloat.

The Christian can only be described if not within the joy, was created for the joy and the same redemption by Christ - albeit accompanied by inevitable tragedy of the Passion - it not ends with Good Friday but with the Sunday of the Resurrection expression of joy that wins over death. The vivid representation of the joy of Christ and the disciples, that the early Christians, It emerges from the Gospel of St. John the Apostle, indicated by the great Fathers of the Church and by the exegetes, also as "The Gospel of joy».

The most credible sign of a Christian It should be just what joy, the intimate joy of living for God and his company; the deep joy of being able to present to the Father every moment of our day and be sure to feel loved, included, forgiven and healed intimately. For this mi often like to quote a passage from the homily for Christmas Pope St. Leo the Great says that: «Recognize your dignity, oh Christian». That is, we are called to re-know each other again, to become aware of our identity, realize again who we are as believers. Every Christian life - thus the mine and yours - is life in which Christ lives, opera, but, pray, hope, suffers, He relies on Father.

sad clown …

The Christian life is a life of communion where the relationship with Jesus is present: here is my dignity, here is my joy! On the contrary, facendo however room for sadness, I put in the shade the presence of Jesus living in me and I go often with only my strength that I check to be inadequate. Moreover, This attitude of spiritual melancholy is reinforced by statements like: "We are born to suffer !», "I'm not worth anything, What can I ever do any good?», "I have zero, God is everything ", "We are in God's hands, we can not do anything ", "I deserve to suffer because of my sins, God rightly punishes me". All these ways of thought of “Christians”, pose a serious down payment on the joy that God wants for her children, Christ merited for us with his resurrection and that the Holy Spirit constantly pours into our hearts as a free gift.

This shadowy situation it is often the result of our low spiritual self-esteem and a very bad or absent spiritual and catechetical formation. I'll explain …

… Spiritual self-esteem is the awareness of the value which every person attaches to itself in relation to the person of God, the attitude that everyone is against it as a loved one, accepted and valued by God. This spiritual self-esteem in part depends on us and our experience of God, in part it depends on those who educated us in the faith so that we could feel loved and worthy Christians. Having a low self-esteem is also the spiritual image of God index that we have cultivated. We can perceive God as an accountant, he who marks his notebook our mistakes and flaws ready to make us pay the bill. We can perceive God as the dictator who deprives us of the joy and only asks us to sacrifices, we can get the idea of God as a symbol of efficiency that wants all perfecting without the possibility of making a mistake or show weakness. Or we tested the idea of God as a con man who promises everything and keeps nothing, or the idea of God's vindictive judge who likes to punish and chastise the man to show his strength.

sad clown …

All these images of God They are indicative of pathological way in which Christians perceive ourselves and the way we live style of the Gospel within our religious communities. E cOn these assumptions, you create a serious risk of a problematic spiritual self-esteem.

It may happen that as Christians we tend not to look at the positive aspects of our lives, denying or not seeing the good that God works in us. It seems more natural to consider the downsides disconsolate and cry about our miseries. Even some religious education, guided by a false and deviated concept of humility, He has led us to feel guilty every time we talk about our quality and that is beautiful and holy we are living in relationship with God.

The confession of praise, that is, the manifestation of the nice things – and therefore of the joy – that the Lord brings into my life is essential to make the sadness disappear once and for all. That's why during the sacramental confession, even before the prosecution of sins, you need to show to the priest, the joyful reality of which I have to give thanks to God.

The Holy Scripture and the most authentic Christian anthropology They tell us that man is not a being negative, lost and dejected. There is a deep-rooted optimism that sees positively the man and this derives from union with God who gives beauty, comfort, dignity and makes the face of the Son continually shine on every created reality. Man is created not only in the good and in the infinite love of God, but is structured as actually very good [cf. GN 1,31] and as a positive reality which has its model in Jesus Lord of the world [cf. With the 1,16-17]. Not even the first disobedience [cf. GN 3] He manages to undermine the respect and the love that God feels for man, so as to continue to evaluate its creature with a personal act of love and care. For this reason, the height of the drama of original sin, man receives also the promise of redemption and he is given a new dress that can give him dignity and value [cf. GN 3,15; 21].

sad clown …

In the history of the people of Israel God always helps the man so that nothing detracts from its value, its certainty of being loved. Neither the arrogance of the Pharaoh of Egypt, nor hunger and thirst in the desert, or sickness, obstinacy and murmuring manage to convince God to reject and disesteem man created very good. It is not external things – good or bad – that determine our value as Christians, It's not what people say about me that makes me a better or worse Christian, it is the value I have for God that makes me lovable.

In the wake of this thought, psychologist James Bugental states that our true identity does not lie outside of ourselves, it must not be sought in external confirmations, in external security. Our true identity, we can find our treasure by digging in the field of our soul, deep within ourselves: place where God takes up residence and reveals himself in joy.

It is in this shrine that I can find the original image that God intended for me, the original word that God pronounced when creating me and which is capable of giving meaning and joy to an entire life, even the most ruined and apparently useless one.

[end of Iª meditation]

Cagliari, 20 January 2019

Shoot, clown !

HTTPS://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QijfX6tswFg

Through the Way to Emmaus of the hospital wards: Chaplain as a disciple and companion in the disease

28 December 2018/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

- pastoral care of health -

THROUGH THE WAY OF EMMAUS LANES OF HOSPITAL: THE CHAPLAIN AS DISCIPLE AND TRAVELING COMPANION IN DISEASE

... in the parable of the Good Samaritan, is a clear reference to Jesus as the one who cares for man beaten by robbers and pours oil on his wounds and wine symbols of sacramental grace that comes from Christ with abundance and power. The man mistreated by robbers is taken over by Jesus to walk from the condition of dying to that of the resurrected.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp. on a visit to the hospital pediatric ward Brotzu of Cagliari with the elves and Santa Claus

The fact that "just die" guides us to understand, through the daily experience, that in life we all need someone to support us and share with us their carefree moments and test. Divine finding of Genesis 2,18 "It is not good that the man should be alone", in my opinion it should not only read as a reference of the spousal relationship between man and woman, but as imperative to sociability and fellowship. Man is called to experience God only in communion with his brother. The mystery of the Trinity, It is a mystery of communion, It does not exist in God alone.

In times of trial and illness the being dynamic with is essential to experience a true accompaniment that both support and stimulus not to feel alone and to enjoy as well the providence of God that puts our side someone who loves us. Already the wisdom of the Psalmist makes us sing: "There, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together " [cf Sal 133,1].

There are two episodes of the Gospel that better than others embody the duty of the vicinity of the Christian toward the sufferer in body and soul: the parable of the Good Samaritan [cf. LC 10,23-37] and the story of the disciples of Emmaus [cf. LC 24,13-35]. In these Gospel passages the evangelist Luke, Master of tenderness and compassion, reveals the preferential love of Christ for the sick man. Hence the urge to dare not pass.

souvenir photo after the Christmas Mass in the pediatric ward

In the parable of the Good Samaritan the reference to Jesus as the one who takes care of the man beaten by brigands and pours on his wounds oil and wine symbols of sacramental grace is clear, that Christ comes with abundance and power. The man mistreated by robbers is taken over by Jesus to walk from the condition of dying to that of the resurrected. The figure of the man beaten on the road, expresses vividly:

"The incurable wound from which we were hit […] and that only the Lord could heal. That's why he came in person, because none of the elderly, nor the Law, i born profeti, They were capable of remedy. Only him, coming, He cured this incurable wound in the soul " [cf. Macarius the Great, Homilies, (Coll. (II)), XXX, 8].

Jesus the Good Samaritan It makes a change of state in the life of every man: dall'orizzontalismo infirmity to the verticality of the new life [cf. LC 4,38-39]. Jesus is the one who heals and heals because it is the Lord. The power of the Risen Lord and his lordship is manifested through a new creation that takes place in humans through a passage from the condition of sickness to health condition that becomes proof of salvation and then resurrection.

Christmas in the pediatric ward

In front of Jesus healing action, there is a need to be employees of a cure that is expressed in time and which is brought forward thanks to the work of the master of the inn to which is entrusted with the task to preserve and continue the work of restoration started by Christ. Like this, in the care and assistance of the sick, the figure of the hospital chaplain embodies the one to whom Jesus entrusted the care of the dying, obeying the mandate to take care of him, mutandolo Minister in the Easter announcement that Jesus is risen and He is the Lord [cf. At 3,1-16], this announcement comes the healing power.

In the ministry of consolation and care which is done in the hospital, the chaplain is called to imitate the attitudes of Good Samaritan who sees the sick but does not pass over. At the same time, the chaplain is also minister of diakonia insofar as he is capable of assuming and planning concrete realities of assistance in the time of illness of many poor and disadvantaged men.

We can say then that the hospital ministry for the sick is a missionary service, that in the ad, in the care and nell'accudimento builds the face of the suffering of Christ Church. Here then is the task of care and compassion is combined in the accompaniment of discouraged, Man hopelessly, therefore infirm soul.

Christmas in the pediatric ward

In the light of the proximity and the impulse to common path, l'Episode from the Gospel of Luke, the disciples of Emmaus shows us Jesus who makes companion of man's journey that has lost hope and joy. In fact the disease, the fear of death and loneliness, destroy the humans joy, as well as put a strain on the faith. Questions like: "why me?"And" where is God in all this?»Prove the patient and his family and they require a response that can never be taken for granted or easy come. Then, at the same time take care of the sick, no need for a walk with him, open his heart to the joyous message of Easter: God is victorious over death, of the disease, the loneliness of man.

Christmas along the Via Emmaus hospital …

The announcement of the Word of God, human proximity to the chaplain and Christian communities who frequently visit the sick, realize that miracle of inclusion and accompaniment which then predisposes the patient to dispose of the sad face of disappointment and sadness to dress the joy and gratitude in the living Jesus. This is why the walk close to the patient within the hospital really means to implement consistently and missionary spirit of the daily visit to the wards, the meeting with the families of the sick, sacramental care of the sick souls.

The chaplain was called to duty of justice to meet the sick, not only to obey the command of Christ [cf. Mt 25,36], but to be traveling with him in the disease, friend who dries her tears and fills a void, prophet who announces that God is faithful and realizes its promises.

the disciples on the Way to Emmaus [see text Lucan WHO].

Christ the Lord, through human and sacramental mediation of the priest chaplain, breaks considered the bread of the Word and the Eucharist that the blind regain sight, the lame to walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf come back to hear, the dead are called to life, the poor are immersed in the gospel of the kingdom [cf. LC 7,22].

A ministry of this kind is no doubt exhausting, slow and meticulous and lends itself to sharing the same divine patience, so that the sick man in body and spirit is, day by day, cared for and loved so that it can achieve health and salvation that are normal conditions for every child of God.

Cagliari, 28 December 2018

Christmas its Eighth

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"I am the Lord, who heals you ". The Christian life is a therapeutic process in the light of obedience to the Word

17 December 2018/1 Comment/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

- pastoral care of health -

"I AM THE LORD, WHO HEALS YOU ". THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A JOURNEY IN THE LIGHT OF THERAPEUTIC'OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD.

In veneration of the name of God it is expressed the will of man to experience his saving and healing. That's why both in Ancient Testament it is in the work of Jesus in the Gospel healing is consequent to an obedient listening to the Word that saves

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Miracle of healing of the blind man, narrated in the Gospel of John: 9, 1-41

Today there is much talk about healing and methods that lead to the recovery of several evils. It is not uncommon to come across turlupinatori that vaunted skills as healers at the expense of poor patients struggling with serious illnesses and disabling. Then there is also a certain pseudo spiritual world which has a vast arsenal of energy and spirit entities who are summoned to engage in healing and renovations. Those who submit to their influence and authority, ending in a dense tangle that presents a whole series of alternative therapies that are, however, disconnected from the principle of causality and lead with great safety toward a technical system which flows in the magical mentality and superstitious [cf. Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, 1954; The technical system, 1977].

GOD HAS A NAME THAT HEALS

miracle of the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethsaida, narrated in the Gospel of John: 5, 1-18.

For the faithful Christian the situation is very different. Indeed, talk about healing and restoration is nothing but recognize the power of God over the world, then the natural laws that govern it, and express his authority as creator freely exercised for the benefit of all its children:

"Thus says the Lord God: I am the Alpha and the Omega, One who is, who it was and who is, the Almighty!» [cf. AP 1,8]

About this, I want to quote a passage from the book of Exodus that says:

"If you give unto the voice of the Lord, your god, and do what is right in his eyes, and you wilt give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I do not t'infliggerò any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you!» [cf. Is 15,26].

The thing that strikes more in this verse is the name of God that is presented on the basis of a clear therapeutic action of reorganization: "I am the one who heals you!»

The therapeutic interventions of the divine name implies careful listening which leads to a clear path to sanctity. The reference to the diseases attests the consequence of an unhealthy life he repudiated God and broke away from him. God is not only the transcendent, the numinous, the almighty, the existing, but it is he who makes knowable and communicable own broadcasting its name. For he saith to Moses in the burning bush:

"I am who I am!» [cf. Is 3,14].

which is not only the expression indicating a mystery - in the theological sense of the word - but first of all it guarantees a presence that accompanies the People of Israel and that protects from every calamity, and free from all evil [cf. Shall 20,2; Pr 18,8]. It gave, communicating his name, He realizes salvation [cf. Shall 124,8], thus ensuring the health of those who are clothed with this name:

"And he brought forth his people […], among the tribes there was not one feeble " [cf. Shall 105, 37].

But we shy away decisively We need to use the magic of God's name! In the language of Scripture the name has an intimate relationship with reality signified, not only it is used to designate the person but expresses the personality, so we can say that the name manifests the heart, the fate that person is called to accomplish: the name realizes the vocation.

The person of God is inextricably linked to the Alliance sanctioned by the Fathers of the People of Israel. God is above all the god of a people, of a nation that binds him with deep bonds of love and loyalty:

"Say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is the title with which I will be remembered from generation to generation " [ cf. Is. 3,15].

The covenant with the People of Israel that found in Abram, Isaac and Jacob, the privileged interlocutors of a relationship of love and fidelity drive us to understand that only in obedience to God - and thus active in listening to his Word - the Alliance celebrates, salvation materialize and health event becomes a journey of grace that recreates man starting a new relationship with his Lord.

Obedience to the Word and listening to the same - in the fullness of time - they are specified in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, Word made flesh [cf. GV 1,3]. God through the work of the Son, recreates the restoring man in his heart a new covenant [cf. Gives 31,33], no longer based on the weakness of the Fathers of Israel but docile on the will of the Son who becomes obedient and determined the will of the Father unto death, even death on a cross [cf. Fil 2,8].

OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD MADE FLESH is PRINCIPLE OF ANY IMPROVEMENT IN THE SPIRIT

miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, narrated in the Gospel of John: 11, 1-45

In the worship of God's name it expresses the will of man to experience his saving and healing. That's why both the Old Testament is the work of Jesus in the Gospel the healing is resulting in an obedient listening to the Word that saves [cf. Shall 81, 12-16].

In his public ministry Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God, this becomes the favorable moment when the proclaimed Word becomes drug. In fact many of the healings that Jesus did take place in the frame of preaching [cf. MC 1, 29-32; MC 1, 40-45; MC 2,1-12; MC 3, 1-6; Mt 9, 14-31; LC 13, 10-17]. The Word of God - as well as the origin of creation - is generating an order and health condition where the chaos of sin and disobedience have caused human illness and death. In the same way, in the Christian community after Easter, obedience to the Word is underscored by ordering presence of the Holy Spirit that descends with plenty on the apostles at Pentecost and gives them authority in preaching and power of physical and spiritual healing. He says in this regard Cabasilas:

"Who has the gift of […] heal the sick […] it has received from myron " [cf. Nicola Cabasilas, Life in Christ, 3, 2].

Namely: from the sacred oil Chrismal a liturgical sign vehicle and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit conferred the sacred ministers. By virtue of sacred ordination and intimate conformity with Christ, Pastors of the Church not only consist of authoritative teachers of the faith but also medical experts with the duty to care for the sick sheep of his flock [cf. This 34,4].

The post Easter apostolic community is charismatic community in the full sense of the word as proclaimed in preaching God works salvation in the risen Christ [cf. At 3] confirmation with the charisma of healing the new ecclesial community mission illuminated by grace, obedient to the Word and always renewed by the action of the Holy Spirit vivifying [cf At 2, 42 ss]. The church, therefore, Mindful of this history of salvation is called every day to preach and to heal.

This speech we find faced by the Fathers of the Church with the theological concept of recast ontological, that is, of that transformation of the whole man through the action of divine grace which takes place - as with the Virgin Mary - in a heart obedient and available to the action of the Holy Spirit.

The theological virtues that the Spirit of God instills in us in baptism, perform a continuous and progressive recovery of our humanity: Faith heals us because it frees man from the anguish of existence becoming confident [cf. John Chrysostom, Homily in 1 TM. 1,2,3; and Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 118,18,3]; hope heals us the anxiety of death and anticipates a destiny of immortality in view of the resurrection of the body at work within us in the sacramental signs; charity is the great medicine offered by Christ, who heals all evil and all pain [cf. Barsanufio in Gaza, Letter 62].

WANT TO BE HEALED?

miracle of healing the only son of a widow, narrated in the Gospel of Luke: 7, 11-17.

The question that opens this paragraph III appears almost obvious, but it is not so. First, since being a question present in the Gospel we can not dismiss it as simple and banal. It is pronounced, almost like whipped, by Jesus himself in regard to the sick man at the Pool of Bethesda [cf. GV 5,6]. Finally, because this application is intended to check the actual desire to heal the sick, leaving to work in his person the grace of the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel we see how many times Jesus asks the sick on the desire of wanting to be a collaborator with God in his recovery. This question basically seeks faith: "Do you think this?» [cf. GV 11,25]; "Your faith has healed you saved ..." [cf. Mt 9,22; Mt 15,28; MC 5,34; MC 10,52; LC 18,42]. Having faith in the biblical man basically means believing in God's faithfulness. The very advent of the Messiah is preceded by promises in which God demonstrates his credibility by definitively realizing what he had announced in different ways through the times through the prophets.

The therapeutic healing journey, we see narrated by the evangelists, and that is still valid for us today, It is possible through three steps: the first, It is the acceptance of one's personal situation - infirmity or sin - in the light of God's saving plan [cf. LC 7,36-50; LC 18,13; LC 18,39]. The second one, is the unlimited confidence in divine grace and the will to cooperate with it [cf. Mt 8,5-13; Mt 15,21-28]. The third, It is the real desire of conversion and final break with sin in all areas of their lives [cf. GV 4,16-19.29; 5,14; 8,11].

The path that leads to healing can then be slower or faster, instant or in stages [cf. MC 8,22-26; LC 17,11-19] but what defines it is always the invalid obedience to the Word proclaimed and taught that becomes fertile ground into which arises a new existence healed. Since man is a complex being, its recovery is always twofold: Jesus healing the body heals the soul and forgiving sin restores vigor to the body [cf. MC 2,1-12].

THE END OF HEALING IS FOLLOWING CHRISTI.

miracle the healing of the centurion's servant, narrated in the Gospel of Luke: 7, 1-10

The man became obedient to the Word and that was it restored it is ready to be an apostle of the Kingdom, that the works of God to be proclaimed to the whole world. Take for example this Gospel passage:

"Then he made his way through towns and villages, preaching and proclaiming the good news of God's kingdom. With him went the Twelve and some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities,: Maria, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven demons; Giovanna, wife of Cuza, Director of Herod; Susanna and many other, who served them with their property [cf. LC 8, 1-3].

Healing restores man because it will become the witness of the Kingdom and for humanity it realizes that there is a God who keeps promises. Consapevolizzarsi in this context is crucial, because the Christological event assumes all the concreteness of real life. It is one thing to follow a beautiful and captivating philosophical doctrine, Another is to give themselves an ideology that is considered successful, more is to witness with their own lives and their own wounds that Christ broke into my daily life has turned me touching my physical and spiritual fragility.

As we have seen with the help of the Fathers of the Church, We are witnessing a transformation of being human that has no equal. The sequel of Jesus - also including the apostolic community - is substantially composed of disciples healed, by injured people who have been made grace and who have found the strength to proclaim the joy of healing: "We’ in your home, from yours, tells them what the Lord has done to you and the mercy he had for you " [cf. Mc 5,19ss]. Only the generosity of the Word and the teaching of Christ can enable the gratitude that is expressed in the gift of self to the Lord.

The man given to God, as well as he understands well the Blessed Apostle Peter, He is able to love even with weakness, imperfection and infirmity [cf. Gv 21,15ss], and if some seemingly appear as partial healings, they refer to the great eschatological healing that will come at the end of time, because only there, in Paradiso, Health and holiness coincide in the mystery of Christ crucified and risen.

Cagliari, 17 December 2018

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A.A.A. Hospital Chaplain Wanted, Please also quote refrain: unable to work, unemployed job seekers and problematic varies made

8 December 2018/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

- pastoral care of health -

A.A.A. CHAPLAIN HOSPITAL WANTED, PLEASE REFRAIN: Unable to work, UNEMPLOYED IN SEARCH OF IMPEGO PROBLEM AND MADE OF VARIOUS

… and so we chose to go around the hospital keeping our religious habit in order to be immediately recognized, among many white coats, as Friars Minor Capuchin. E, I must say: it worked. After some time, in the hospital, they realized that the two men in brown clothes, with girdle around the hips, sandals and beards, were the new chaplains.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Cagliari, Church of Saint Lucia: St. Catherine Laboure of distributing the Miraculous Medal [by Aurelio Galleppini]

Let me try to shed light on identity of the hospital chaplain, as strange as it may seem, I realized that in fact the evidence shows, between the various pastoral figures within the Church, It is a being almost mythological.

First, it is necessary to clarify the canonical and pastoral appearance: the chaplain is a priest chosen by the bishop for the pastoral care of that portion of the People of God which is living the time of disease at a health facility, for example a hospital, a clinic, or in an assisted geriatric nursing home.

Already this first definition It allows you to do some special considerations: the place of action of the chaplain is not the parish or monastic church, but a care place where he performs a specialized operator function along with other figures. Understanding this is crucial because, within the healthcare facility, the chaplain is not the master, even the legal representative, as it happens instead in the case of the pastor. In facts, It is therefore one of the many. Understanding this aspect, What is crucial.

Often, the spirit of vanity of us belonging to the clergy, It does not digest this nuance that is ill-suited to the priest, nor what certainly it helps to create opportunities in which God can reveal in a ministry as sensitive as the hospital, there is no doubt that the priest is a man, but never forget that he is - and it is called to be - a man given to God, that the chaplain and through the chaplain and through a dynamic of ordinariness and concealment that I like to approach the biblical period of the youth of Jesus in Nazareth.

Cagliari: Church of Saint Lucia: The martyrs of Arras killed in hatred of the faith during the French Revolution [by Aurelio Galeppini]

The place where the work is the hospital chaplain, clinic, l’hospice, assisted nursing home. All non-places consecrated by the scented oil of Chrism that the bishop used to consecrate to God a place for the worship. That is why today, the chaplain, It operates within a health resort that takes on highly secular connotations. Therefore, we can also forget the old black and white films of the fifties of the twentieth century, in which they could see the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de 'Paoli with their starched white hats, intent to ring the bell on the wards to announce the arrival of the priest carrying the Blessed Sacrament. None of this is happening today in these structures, within which the chaplain is silent presence, often confused between the various professionals in the health world.

Having said that I open a small digression now: I arrived at the hospital Brotzu Cagliari, In the 2013, sbrigate hiring practices was offered us the use of white coat: that common to all healthcare professionals. After a few moments of reflection, I and my brother, We decided to reject the proposal, not simply to increase the gap of anonymity and uniformity that the white coat gives. Like this, We chose to go around the hospital keeping our religious habit, especially in order to be immediately recognized among many white coats as Friars Minor Capuchin. E, I must say: it worked. After some time, the hospital realized that the two men in brown clothes, with girdle around the hips, sandals and beards, were the new chaplains.

Now I wish to share with the readers of The Island of Patmos some other interesting consideration: in health facilities, the chaplain, day after day has the task of earning a right of citizenship. Or to clarify: if the role of the chaplain - to date - is still recognized by the Law, The person filling this role needs to be known, therefore it must necessarily implement a sociability in the healthcare community in which it operates.

The Daughters of Charity before yesterday – image of the Blessed Giuseppina Nicoli [1863-1924]

It is not my intention to make sermons, However I must say that the identity of the chaplain is inherent in his being priest. Only the priest can be chaplain [cf. can. 564 of the Code of Canon Law]. A good reason, the chaplain is for this required a style suited to its identity, social relations, expressing his devotion to God. And this I have to specify it clearly, because it often happens that the chaplain is instead identified as a kind of social worker, as a psychologist or as a confidant friend to all. And if from a certain point of view this is the consequence of a type of secularism increasingly rampant that tends to reshape what is alien, on the other hand it is necessary to ensure that the priest does not exercise his identity, distorting, up to assume other more attractive identity that are well accepted to modernity on the one hand, the spirit of secularism on the other hand.

In health resorts, the priest chaplain is a prophet speaking on behalf of God because it is able to listen. It is the angel of Gethsemane who comforts the dying and reconciles with God [cf. LC 22, 43]. It is the guardian of mercy and justice for the Kingdom of God is realized between the platforms of many sick and weak, and father and teacher to guide and instruct men to the Gospel which is good news for all.

the Daughters of Charity yesterday – image of Mother Suzanne Guillemin, Superior General from 1962 al 1968

Before this priestly identity It fits the varied work of God, creating every man, It gives to each characteristic personal gifts, thus enriching the ministerial priesthood with their charisms at the service of God's people and of the Church.

Finally, I wish to highlight a critical note concerning the figure of the hospital chaplain and a certain style of doing Health Pastoral. From what little I have written on the figure of the priest appointed to the position of chaplain in a health facility, it is clear how these should be a good quality element or, at least, unproblematic. Unfortunately, the objective data derived from the facts as from the experiences, however this is not always. Indeed, in a historical moment in which the Church is suffering from a growing shortage of priests in the face of a lot of work to be done, the pastoral area of health care is often discriminated. Our pastors prefer to employ their best priests in parishes, in family ministry, in the catechetical formation of young people, in welcoming the marginalized and so. It is a choice that one can also understand, does not share.

Christ never made a hit parade in their ministry, but all the men who came to him were worthy of your attention and all received help and salvation.

the Daughters of Charity today – formation meeting for religious

Some examples pastoral bad health implies that the figure of the chaplain. Let's start with the first case: appoint a chaplain elderly priest and sick because no longer able to sustain the parish pace that in itself calls for dynamism, equivalent to thinking that the hospital can provide prompt assistance for his injuries. To follow with the second case: appoint a chaplain priest without a parish in keeping placement is forced out of obedience to his bishop to stay in the hospital, but what with the risk that this person will end soon to be intolerant to disease and death, until not stand the smell of disinfectant or the sight of blood, and soon it became a fugitive difficult to reach, except for the day 27 of the month, when he picks up the salary Ente Hospital. The third case, Perhaps the saddest, Hospital is seen by some bishops as a place of exile, a kind of new Saint Helena Island for priests disobedient and unruly that ultimately this placed among the sick, as a kind of punishment.

In these three cases, how is it possible to live and practice in the priestly ministry, health ministry through the concreteness of the loving invitation from Christ the Lord who calls us: "I was sick and you visited me" [cf. Mt 25, 36], in the full knowledge that "every time you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" ? [cf. Mt 25, 40].

Cagliari, 8 December 2018

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Jesus Christ in the suffering. Pastoral health theology narrated by those who live the dimension of disease and disability in the daily experience of priestly life

4 December 2018/in Actuality, Pastoral Care/by Father Ivano

- pastoral care of health -

JESUS CHRIST IN SUFFERING. HEALTH PASTORAL THEOLOGY TOLD BY THOSE WHO LIVE THE DIMENSION OF DISEASE AND DISABILITY IN THE DAILY EXPERIENCE OF PRIESTLY LIFE

The disease has the advantage of scale the pride of man and physical weakness causes to be supported by others in corporal practices, even the most intimate. Unfortunately, there is the remote possibility that the sick priest - just as Christ in the Garden of Olives - Know the abandonment of the brothers and their families fleeing the desolation that the disease involves.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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San Leopoldo Mandic, recognized by the Italian Episcopal Conference as the protector of suffering from cancer [cf. WHO]

I start collaborating with The Island of Patmos with a reflection on the ministry of the most beautiful and delicate in the life of a priest: the pastoral care of the sick. This article is adapted from a meeting with the seminarians of the Pontifical Regional Seminary Sardo, where I spoke with a group of future priests in a time of dialogue, eschewing the temptation to conduct a pastoral theology lesson.

I want to clarify immediately what 'it only works well if you believe good ", a concept of extreme importance that concerns each type of pastoral. Often and erroneously, the ministry is identified with the only practice; as if it were a practical reality called to carry alone “operating”. Seen in these terms, Pastoral seems almost natural antagonist of dogmatic theology, seen as the static reality of truth. In reality, is it necessary to make a logical effort and understand that in order to “work well” you need to "think well". The same thing is experienced in the field of Divine Liturgy, we celebrate rites and signs that we firmly believe in the heart [cf. RM 10,10]. Under this, I can not expect to make a good pastoral - whatever it is - not from the strength of the data of Revelation and the Magisterium of the Church. It is necessary to combine the truth to do, faith works, being the practice, so that pastoral theology becomes:

'Presence and action of the Church aimed evangelization of the world […] by discounting the liberating presence, healing, and savior of Christ, in the power of the Spirit " [cf. Brusco - Painter, In the footsteps of Christ doctor, EDB, Bologna 1999, p.37].

San Leopoldo Mandic

The ministry thus properly understood, He is turning me into a seeker of God, of that God who always enters into dialogue with the men to be known intimately and in the fullness of time you communicate fully through the Son the Word of Truth [cf. EB 1,1-2]. The ministry is the joyful message that God dwells man's time and in this context, in free and permanently, It works salvation. And in this time of grace in which man seeks God, We'll be guided by the Holy Spirit to communicate to the wells of salvation, which are the Sacraments; to live transfiguring relationships within the church community of believers; to testify and proclaim that every man from baptism belongs to the risen Christ as to be assimilated by him, according to the beautiful words that we find in confessions Sant’ Augustine:

"You will be you who assimilate me to you, but I who assimilerò you to me ' [cf. S. Augustine, "Confessions", VII, 10].

Poste be in these considerations, pastoral theology is the purest taking action consciousness of God in the identity of faith - as expressed by dogmatic theology - that the Church proposes to the man who wants to meet God. The ministry is not the container engaging strategies to proclaim Christ or earn disciples, but communication deposit of credit in the heart of humanity that the example of the blessed Apostle Peter proclaims:

"Man, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God " [cf. GV 6,68-69].

For this we say that the ministry is a journey of faith and of the knowledge of Christ.

PASTORAL CARE OF SUFFERING TO MEET THE "SUFFERING"

San Leopoldo Mandic

Clarified broadly the discourse on pastoral in its relationship to the truth revealed, Now let us analyze the pastoral care of the sick and suffering brothers. Forever, this is a type of typically Christian activity, because Christ has identified his person with the sick [cf. Mt 25,36ss] and at the time of his passion he is in charge not only of sins, but of all physical suffering [cf. Is 53,4]. His most holy body and his most precious blood which we adore in bread and wine constitutes sacrament ie sacred sign, veil of a real presence; similarly in the suffering body of Christ it is sick veiled but present in the name of the one who suffers for his sickness. About this, Pascal is said that at the end of his life, not being able to receive the holy sacrament because of a bad stomach which would involve the danger of profaning the Eucharist, he asked to receive the Lord through the sign-presence of the sick poor of the hospital for the incurable.

For us priests and future priests, the pastoral care of the sick is a natural continuation of the Eucharistic celebration where we had the chance to meet and make us listeners and worshipers of Christ the example of Mary of Bethany, only to become his servants myths like Martha. This is why I feel like stating - without fear of contradiction - that the priest who does not visit and serve the sick in his day, seriously it demeans the Eucharistic Sacrifice that celebrates. Unfortunately in fraternal dialogue with several fellow priests and pastors, I gained the feeling of like visiting the sick is becoming one of the most overlooked and forgotten priestly duties. And what I have just said is solid evidence in the experience of the saints. Blessed St. Francis of Assisi made sacramental experience of Christ the Redeemer precisely in the sign of leprosy sufferer who meets along the way:

"The Lord gave me, Brother Francis, to begin doing penance in this way: When I was in sin, it seemed too bitter to see lepers; And the Lord Himself led me among them and I showed mercy to them. And when I left them, what had seemed bitter to me was turned into sweetness of soul and body. And then, I delayed a little and left the world " [cf. S. Francis of Assisi, "Will" 1-3, FF. 110].

San Leopoldo Mandic

Before that encounter and dialogue with the Crucifix of San Damiano, Francis of Assisi is dazzled by Christ through the sign of his brother's illness leper [cf. 1Cel17, FF. 348; 3Comp11, FF. 1407-1408]. Like this, following the example of its founder, the first Franciscan fraternity chose to stay with leprosy patients and serve as identification for those in illness, Because of marginality, I'm image of Christ.

Even before the pauperism choice, St. Francis chose as a way of rapprochement to Christ the category of the scariest sick of his time: the lepers [cf. Arms, SLewis Francis, Ed. St. Paul, pp. 109-110].

CARE OF SUFFERING IS CAUSE FOR CONVERTING THE PRIEST

Through the example of St. Francis meeting the leper converts, I now want to underline how this type of ministry is conducted not only in view of a dynamic welfare Ministerial towards the sufferers, but as an occasion of grace and personal conversion to the person of the priest.

San Leopoldo Mandic

Visiting the sick, proposes the inescapable certainty of the condition of fragility of our human nature contracted with original sin. I have to bear in mind that, the passage of time and the seasons, tomorrow the condition of sickness is also my. In the experience as a hospital chaplain, I have dealt with several times the assistance of inmates sick brothers who have experienced in their own flesh what is in the time of their youth lived only indirectly through the pastoral practice. In such a state of weakness and infirmity, outward priestly insignia and ceremonial trappings that often nourish the vain glory remain mute and are less. In the sick priest, It becomes present in all the crudeness of stripping a necessary realism that makes brilliant empathy to Christ Priest and Victim [cf. Fil 2,7; Mt 27,35]. Depending on the severity of the disease and personal caregiving conditions, the sick priest reflects its image into that of the Suffering Servant of YHWH:

"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, no beauty that we should desire him " [cf. Is 53,2].

The disease has the advantage of scale the pride of man and physical weakness induces to be supported by the other in corporal practices, even the most intimate. Unfortunately, there is the remote possibility that the sick priest - just as Christ in the Garden of Olives - Know the abandonment of the brothers and their families fleeing the desolation that the disease involves. This eventuality that It could relate to each patient. But it is the priest who takes on a particular value of identity with Christ by virtue of sacred ordination. About this, just remember episodes of illness that have touched the long life of John Paul II to understand the role conforming to Christ of the disease in the person of the sick priest.

San Leopoldo Mandic

The sick priest, sometimes it is no longer able to offer the bread and wine but only himself to the Father. God accepts this sacrifice in union with that of Christ with a view to personal purification and for the redemption of the world. Not already so how bloody reality that seeks pain for pain as well as quench of the cup of divinity [cf. Rene Girard, The Scapegoat].

I remember very well the words of a senior priest after having administered the Sacrament of the Sick:

"Tell the bishop that I offer all this for the priests and the Church's needs!».

Already St. Paul had expressed this with words: "I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, in favor of his body which is the Church " [cf. With the 1,24]. Here's how the disease calls to conversion, to review their priorities and personal positions, to verify their lives as well as gold is purified and refined in the crucible [cf. Sir 2,4-5].

Looking at our weakness God's ministers, when we suffer with Christ is not the time to put our hands into those of the bishop as the day of priestly ordination but those same Father as a sign of obedience union of the Son on the cross. And repeating with St. Bernard say:

It was the death of Christ, who pleased God the Father, but his willingness to die spontaneously for us " [cf. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Letter 90, De Error Abelardi, 8,21-22 PL 182, 1070, «not jaws, yet decided on her own that dies»].

This reflection on the disease in the person of the priest, not only it produces the purpose of a real and concrete conversion, as it sharpens the desire to be well prepared to deal with the illness and death with the weapons of faith. But it also makes present as the disease of those who serve as ministers, acquires meaning only through the wisdom of faith that we find expressed in the scriptures:

"Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, for they suffered such things? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish equally. Or those eighteen, above which Siloam fell tower fell, You believe that they were worse offenders than all the inhabitants of Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, all perish in the same way » [cf. LC 13 2-5].

HEALTH messianic TASK DELIVERY IN CHRIST PRIEST.

San Leopoldo Mandic

The priest in charge of the pastoral care of the sick He embarks on a journey of healing with the suffering brother, that is the Messianic person to whom Jesus addressed the beginning of his public ministry:

"Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached " [cf. LC 7,22].

We are facing a new kind of pastoral, Jesus works a therapeutic ministry, capable of involving men in a journey of healing and rapprochement with God precisely because it requires conversion [cf. MC 1,14-15]. This type of ministry takes a step that is not only methodological, but ontological: switching from a pastoral centered only on a pastoral health condition that requires care for the sick. And Jesus is not perhaps the Savior, one who would care salus and realizes? San Pietro Crisologo expresses this thought so:

"Christ came to take our infirmities and to bestow its virtues, to take charge of the human and to give us the divine, to accept the insults and make about, to endure the hassle and restore health. The fact that no doctor is in charge of disease knows no cure, and one who is not sick with the sick can not give health. [cf. S. Peter Crisologo, sermons, PL 52, 50].

When Christianity speaks of salvation, uses the Latin word salus. Every Sunday in the Creed we say for our salvation;, that is, for our salvation. The Christian Health, what we see in the Gospels is that when Christ tears me infirmity wanted by the devil - origin and cause of every sin and evil - and introduces me into the Paschal healing at the price of his blood. Inside this logic every healing and liberation that Christ as the author becomes Easter time where the work of the devil is defeated and the man returned their health according to God's saving plan.

San Leopoldo Mandic

The therapeutic action that Christ does in his public ministry is an anticipation of the final ministry of salvation and health come true with his passion, Death and Resurrection. Popular piety comes to us in this reasoning with the beautiful prayer attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola: Anima Christi. At one point of the prayerful prayer puts it this way:

"Blood of Christ, inebriate. Water from the side of Christ, thoroughly ».

We put before Jesus crucified on Golgotha, Soldiers control the bodies of the condemned and in the manner of Roman crucifixion break your legs to prevent convicted of a slow death, and anticipate death, but Jesus this fate is not up because it is already dead, so that for security it was inflicted a wound to the chest pouring blood and water [cf. GV 19,31-36]. The bath that heals me and tears me from the power of the devil is certainly that figure baptismal water that flows from the side of the redeemer. But there is a second washing, the blood of Christ that the priest administers whenever absolves sins.

San Leopoldo Mandic

The blood and water are so the two streams where man can cleanse away all his life, and buy with salvation also healing. Interestingly, the blood of Christ in prayer Anima Christi is said that intoxicates. What the author alludes? I do not think of making a mistake if we interpret these words in reference to the Holy Spirit, discreet presence that intoxicates the life of believers with the same love that unites the Father and the Son. The blood that Christ shed is a sign of obedience to the Father, a sign of the highest fidelity that a child can manifest its parent. The moment in which the blood of Christ cleanses me from sin, I wash the sins, I am also reached by the same love which the Son has the Father. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit who gives me the intoxicating sweetness of her vital presence that makes my life [cf. This 37,9]. Not for nothing did the apostle Matthew says that Jesus at the time of his death gave up the spirit [cf. Mt 27,50]. To returns? To the Father as a total surrender of his person and man as a demonstration and teaching a love which goes to the end [cf. GV 13,1]. When Christ saves me with his blood, also it gives me the deposit of its intoxicating love which is the Holy Spirit, making me enjoy salvation and the good that God wants me. The priest is made by Jesus instrument of this grace for the brothers, to the total gift of his person, of his time and his ministry.

Last Rites, Today Sacrament of the Sick [dipinto di Rogier van der Weyden, 1445]

I conclude by quoting the sacrament of healing that the Church gives to the sick brothers. This sacrament is the wonderful synthesis of the Passion of Christ and of his love offered to each patient. In ministering to the sick, the priest is called to administer promptly the sacrament of anointing of the sick. Sacramento combining the therapeutic character and salvific action of Christ on the bodies and the souls of the suffering. The therapeutic efficacy and remissoria of this sacrament on the evils of body and spirit involves a spiritual bath which always acts in virtue of that blood flowed from the open side of the redeemer. The imposition of the priest's hands on the head of the patient before the anointing is the explicit reference to the gift of the Holy Spirit who is poured out at that time as a liniment man oppressed by suffering.

Fidelity of the priest to perform these saving acts in his ministry, This healthy and make the saving action of Christ among brothers. The duty-duty of the priest to give salvation is identical to that of Christ. And when Jesus came to give us life in abundance [cf. GV 10,10], the same is called to perform the priest: give life, not possess; work for a healing of men, not to increase the wounds.

Cagliari, 4 December 2018

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