08/03/2020 - 17:12
- Clarín.com
- Society
The Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Cardinal Primate of Argentina, Mario Poli, together with the auxiliary bishops sent a letter to "thankfully admire and enthusiastically encourage" the people involved in the care and care of the sick due to the pandemic of the coronavirus.
Poli, in this way, thanks all those who care for the sick who should have been isolated, and, therefore, separated from all their affections and ties.
The message of the bishops recognizes the presence and closeness of death in daily life, and tries in this sense to "strengthen hearts, since death, viewed with honesty and perceived with all its dramatic burden, is something that allows improving the questions about your own life and everyone's life. "
The complete letter:
Dear children, brothers, friends:
This brief letter from the bishops of Buenos Aires has only one purpose: to thank with admiration and enthusiastically encourage all people who today, in this difficult time of trial and challenge, are dedicated to the care and care of patients who, in serious condition, must have been isolated, and, therefore, separated from all their affections and ties.
Every human being is unrepeatable; so is the course of its existence; also the way to get to the end of the road.
In these days, that end has been made present to us not only in reflection, but has been hinted with unexpected closeness in daily life. It is death. It must be said with all that is disturbing, mysterious, unfair, painful; also terrible. You contemplate your own death and meditate on it, and also that of your loved ones.
What we say here does not want to be melancholic. On the contrary, he wants to strengthen hearts, since death, viewed with honesty and perceived with all its dramatic burden, is something that improves questions about one's life and the lives of all. Moreover, it is not only about questions and reflections but about a real fact that gives an extraordinary value to human existence. Death makes us see more clearly how much we want the lives of those we love, and helps us feel how admirable the life received is for oneself.
In youth we ask ourselves many questions. The time will approach some answers. But there is a special one among all, which is not the least: the life that one has lived.
Death is the last stroke that completes the figure of a life. Therefore, a dying person is someone worthy of the highest respect: he is finishing carving his meaning, knowing who he is.
Without a doubt, this last step is extremely difficult. That is why it is called "agony," which is a word that originally means "fight." When the agony passes through the hands of loved ones, comfort and love strengthen for that last fight. But when she frees herself in solitude, everything becomes more arid, more extreme.
There are some signs that are warning and preparing the end: the decline of physical forces, the weakening of the mental faculties, the diseases that must be passed and the consequences that they leave behind… The human form is blurred. Now, when all of this is lived away from loved ones, there is added, to all this physical and mental deterioration, a deep spiritual emptiness, a feeling, above all, of abandonment, which no longer consists only in the absence of affection, but in the manifestation of something deeper and more definitive. The limit has been reached.
OMG OMG! Why have you abandoned me? It is the cry of Christ on the Cross when he cannot perceive his Father. It is the cry that makes up all the screams and all the abandonments. Only he could come, with all humanity in his heart, to confront the catastrophe of his Absence with God himself. However, in his most absolute abandonment, he too could say, embracing all humanity: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
That is why we Christians, when we reach the extreme, turn our gaze to the Crucified, whom the Bible describes as follows: He was so disfigured that he did not seem human. It had no appearance, no presence, no beauty that we could appreciate. Despicable and waste of men, a man of pain experienced in brokenness, as before someone who turns his face.
Jesus, in whose resurrection the beauty of the destiny of the human form will be manifested, now shows that beauty in a mysterious way: to that extent the Father's love for us has reached.
Christians kiss the cross. We do not kiss death, but the love with which Jesus dies. It is the great paradox of the wound: there you feel the pain, but also the relief and the cure. Without a wound nothing is felt, there is only impassivity. How is the beauty of a wound? Jesus wanted to keep them in his glorious body of the risen Christ. So faith in the resurrection must never devalue the dignity of the last moment of pain. Christians believe in the beauty of the withered flower.
Can God make the pain go away? Certainly. Let's remember the miracles. But it is not the ordinary way, which he has left in the hands of our freedom. The main response of the Christian God to suffering is to go into it. Christ did not come down from the cross, as no man can come down. So where there is pain and suffering, where there is a cross, there is God before anywhere else. On the cross is when one is more son. Here, the human dignity of the dying man amounts to sacred dignity.
This is why today we want to say to those who care for the seriously ill and alone, that they are in a unique task, very beautiful and that no one else can do: protect. With all the precautions that are required and that are indicated, protect. Make the patient feel that there is a presence, that his solitude is not so absolute. Every person, also in that extreme moment, needs to be valued, to be recognized, to be loved.
When it comes to sick Christians, and those who care for them are also, know that you can do many things: you can bless the sick, you can bless water to accompany him in his prayer. They can make the sign of the cross on the sick or the water and ask God for his gifts, health and blessing. They can also do it on other objects: a rosary, a picture ... Know that you are empowered to do it, everyone is baptized. But at no time do it if you do not see that it is a wish of the patient. Nor does it need to be overwhelmed with words. Silent presence is sometimes a much more intimate and profound communion. (All this, of course, depends on the state of the patient, the level of severity of his situation). Make use of your imagination. Those of other religious denominations will also know how to comfort their faith. (Perhaps, sometimes, some news can be sent to relatives or friends, for whom the situation is also very hard; or from them to the patient).
When the sick person or the one who assists are not believers, the presence and the affection are worth as much as in the other case. And, always in accordance with the procedures that take care of the health, perhaps a photo of his loved ones, or of a loved or significant place, or a music preferred by him can be approached to the patient.
We know that many of you already do these things; we just want to revive them, stoke the momentum. It does not escape us that the task is hard, sacrificed, that can wear down, desensitize, produce disgust, anger over things that are not right ... If one manages to go through all these things and not lose sight of the essential, the protection of the sick, will feel a very deep joy that no one can take away from you. And the only way to go through all these obstacles is to put your heart ahead, with all its capacity to love, to do good.
To all the people, who are attending the isolated, Catholic believers or those of other confessions, and non-believers at this time: we ask for you, we wish you the best, also that the work of each one is recognized with a worthy economic support that reflects the value of such an important task.
So to all of you, the bishops, we want to tell you to count on us. We admire them, we love them, we need them; they are important, special, inspiring.
We bless you with all our hearts.
Note: The Bishops of Buenos Aires thank the brother priest who made the words of this timely and consoling reflection available to us. For her valuable and inspired message we make her ours, while we respect the author's sober and humble request that his identity remain silent. Thank you!
AFG
