Yesterday, February 11, the Church observed the 14 th World Day of the Sick. It is important not to sink into romanticism about illness. To speak about sickness is to speak about suffering.

The truth is, at least in a certain sense, “suffering does to death,” as Charles Elliott says in his book Praying Through Paradox . He writes: “Whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, the hurts of suffering have to be named for what they are—destructive, diminishing, demoralizing and fearful.”

Often it takes real suffering in our own lives and those around us to speak of it less glibly than we sometimes do, to come to the way of seeing as Job does at the end of his ordeal. Then he could say to God:

I am the man who obscured your designs

with my ignorant words.

I have been holding forth on matters I cannot understand,

on marvels beyond me and my knowledge …

I knew you then only by hearsay;

but now, having seen you with my own eyes,

I retract all I have said,

and in dust and ashes I repent (Job 42: 3-6).

Pope Benedict's message, which focusses on the mentally ill does not mask the reality of the deathly power of sickness. He notes that mental disturbance afflicts one-fifth of humanity and that it “is a real social-health care emergency.”

He also draws attention to the many survivors of natural catastrophes and acts of terrorism which have triggered “psychological traumas that are difficult to cure.” He says the Church, on this occasion, “intends to bow down over those who suffer with special concern.”

Family and community support

Too easily we treat those who have suffered from mental illness with fear and suspicion. Often the families of mentally ill persons cannot care adequately for their relatives. At the time, it seems, when the sick person most needs the help of the family and community, that support might not be there.

In this Sunday's gospel, Jesus reaches out to touch the leper and cures him. The man who before had wandered “ outside the camp ” (Leviticus 13: 46 ) now becomes a full member of the community. The man's sickness becomes an opportunity for the breaking in of the kingdom of God.

Sickness and suffering gives us all an opportunity to identify ourselves with the life of Christ and his power present now in the world, to reverse the power of death. So St Paul could say, “ disciplined by suffering, we are not done to death ” NEB (2 Corinthians 6: 9).

This Sunday pilgrims will journey once more to the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Maraval confident in the help that the Blessed Mother gives and in the power of her Son to heal.

This World Day of the Sick calls us to consider the ways in which we continue to keep our sick brothers and sisters “ outside the camp ”. It invites us to stand in solidarity, says Pope Benedict, with “families who have mentally ill persons dependent upon them.”

The day should give us also an opportunity to honour health care and pastoral workers in the field who by their service allow for the breaking in of God's kingdom.