Dear friends who are sick and you, the family members and health-care workers who share their difficult
path, keep in mind that you have a leading role of Gospel renewal on the spiritual journey towards the
Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. Against the disturbing panorama of old and new forms of attacks on life,
which mark the history of our times, you are like the crowd that tried to touch the Lord "because power
went out from him which cured all" (Lk 6:19). And it was precisely in the presence of this multitude of
people that Jesus gave the "sermon on the mount", calling blessed those who weep (cf. Lk 6:21).
Suffering and being at the side of the suffering: whoever lives these two situations in faith comes into
particular contact with the sufferings of Christ and is allowed to share "a very special particle of the infinite
treasure of the world's Redemption" (Salvifici doloris, n. 27).

Dear brothers and sisters who are enduring trials, generously offer your pain in communion with the
suffering Christ and with Mary, his most gentle Mother. And you who work daily at the side of the
suffering, make your service a valuable contribution to evangelization. Feel that you are a living part of the
Church, since in you the Christian community has been called to embrace the Cross of Christ so as to give
the world the reason for its Gospel hope (cf. 1 Pt 3:15). "We ask all you who suffer to support us. We ask
precisely you who are weak to become a source of strength for the Church and humanity. In the terrible
battle between the forces of good and evil, revealed to our eyes by our modern world, may your suffering
in union with the Cross of Christ be victorious" (Salvifici doloris, n. 31).

Message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II
World Day of the Sick 1996