MEETING OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
WITH A GROUP OF GRAVELY ILL CHILDREN AND THEIR
FAMILIES (2015)
When, during catechism class, we were taught about the
Most Holy Trinity, they spoke to us of a mystery: that yes, there is the
Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, but it could not be entirely understood. It’s
true, we have evidence that it is true, but understanding it is another thing.
Evidence we have. Here too, if we look at Jesus, the Eucharist, Jesus is there
in that piece of bread, it’s true. But how is it so? I don’t grasp how it could
be... but it’s true, it is He. This is a mystery, we say. And in the same way,
if we ask some other questions about the catechesis, they can't be understood
in depth, but we have proof.
There is also a question, whose explanation one does
not learn in a catechesis. It is a question I frequently ask myself and many of
you, many people ask: “Why do children suffer?” And there are no answers. This
too is a mystery. I just look to God and ask: “But why?” And looking at the
Cross: “Why is your Son there? Why?” It is the mystery of the Cross.
I often think of Our Lady, when they handed down to
her the dead body of her Son, covered with wounds, spat on, bloodied and
soiled. And what did Our Lady do? “Did she carry him away?” No, she embraced
him, she caressed him. Our Lady, too, did not understand. Because she, in that
moment, remembered what the Angel had said to her: “He will be King, he will be
great, he will be a prophet...”; and inside, surely, with that wounded body lying
in her arms, that body that suffered so before dying, inside surely she wanted
to say to the Angel: “Liar! I was deceived.” She, too, had no answers.
As children grow, there comes a certain age when they
don’t quite understand what the world is like, when they are about two years
old, more or less. And they begin to ask questions: “Papa, why? Mama, why? Why
this?” When the father or mother begins to explain, they do not listen. They
have another why this and why that?” But they don’t really want to hear the
explanation. With this “why?” they are only drawing the attention of their mom
and dad. We can ask the Lord: “Lord, why? Why do children suffer? Why this
child?” The Lord will not speak words to us, but we will feel his gaze upon us
and this will give us strength.
Do not be afraid to ask, even to challenge, the Lord.
“Why?” Maybe no explanation will follow, but his fatherly gaze will give you
the strength to go on. And he will also give you that strange thing about which
this brother [referring to a testimony that was given by the father of one of
the sick children] spoke in his double experience: a different feeling, a
strange feeling. And perhaps this feeling of tenderness toward your sick child
will be the answer, because that is the gaze of the Father. Do not be afraid to
ask God: “Why?” to challenge him: “Why?” may you always have your heart open to
receiving his fatherly gaze. The only answer that he could give you will be:
“My Son also suffered”. That is the answer. The most important thing is that
gaze. And your strength is there: the loving gaze of the Father.
You might ask, “But you, a bishop,” you have “studied
so much theology, and you have nothing more to tell us?” No. The Trinity, the
Eucharist, the grace of God, the suffering of children are a mystery. And we
can enter into the mystery only if the Father looks upon us with love. I
honestly don’t know what to say to you because I have so much admiration for
your strength, for you courage. You said that you were advised to abort. You
said: “No, let him come, he has a right to live”. Never, never is a problem
resolved by discarding a person. Never. This would be going by the Mafia
rulebook: “There’s a problem, let’s just get rid of it...” Never.
I accompany you thus as I am, as I feel. And, in truth,
the compassion I feel is not fleeting, it’s not. I accompany you in my heart on
this path, which is a path of courage, which is the path of the cross, and yet
a path that will help me, your example helps me. And I thank you for being so
courageous. Many times in my life I have been a coward, and your example has
been good for me, it is good for me. Why do children suffer? It's a mystery. We
need to call on God as a child calls his dad and says: “Why? Why?” to draw the
gaze of God, which will tell us one thing: “Look at my Son, He too”.
The fact that in a world where it is routine to live
according to the throw-away culture, what isn’t easy gets tossed out, you bear
this condition so well, allow me to say it — I’m not flattering you, I mean it
with all my heart — this is heroic. You are life’s little heroes. I have
frequently heard the great concern of fathers and mothers like you and I am
sure that it is the same with you: may [my son] not be alone in life, may [my
daughter] not be alone in life. It may be perhaps the only occasion in which
parents ask the Lord to take the child first, so that they not be left alone in
life. This is love.
I thank you for your example. I don’t know what more
to say, honestly, because these things touch me so deeply. I too have no
answers. “But you are the Pope, you ought to know everything!” No, there are no
answers to these things, only the gaze of the Father. And then, what do I do? I
pray, for you, for these children, for the feeling of joy, of sorrow, all mixed
together, which our brother spoke about. And the Lord knows how to soothe this
pain in a special way. Let Him be the One who gives the right consolation to
each of you, whatever you need.
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