Dear brothers and sisters who are suffering in spirit and in body! Do not yield to the temptation to regard pain as an experience which is only negative, to the point of doubting God’s goodness.

Dear brothers and sisters who are suffering in spirit and in body! Do not yield to the temptation to regard pain as an experience which is only negative, to the point of doubting God’s goodness. In the suffering Christ every sick person finds the meaning of his or her afflictions. Suffering and illness belong to the condition of man, a fragile, limited creature, marked by original sin from birth. In Christ, who died and rose again, however, humanity discovers a new dimension to its suffering: instead of a failure, it reveals itself to be the occasion for offering witness to faith and love.

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