Reflecting on the Gospel for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Holy Father stressed that the most important healing is that of the affections.

Vatican City (29/06/2021 10:00, Gaudium Press) Last Sunday, 27 June, before the Marian prayer of the Angelus, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel of the day, in which, according to the Pontiff, Our Lord Jesus Christ is faced with “our two most dramatic situations, death and illness”.

Neither pain nor death has the last word

Two people are delivered from both death and sickness. The first was a little girl who dies while her father went to Jesus for help; the second was a woman, who has been losing blood for many years. Touched by our pain, Jesus heals them both, to show us that neither pain nor death has the last word and that death is not the end.

According to Pope Francis, more than the woman’s health, what was compromised were her affections. Because she lost a lot of blood, she was considered impure by the mentality of the time and lived alone and in bitterness. According to the Gospel itself, she spent all her possessions in search of healing, without success. For the Holy Father, the greatest illness in life “is the lack of love, is not being able to love. This poor woman was sick for lack of love. And the most important cure is that of affections.”

Let us not judge the personal and social reality of others

“We too, how often we throw ourselves into wrong remedies to satisfy our lack of love. We think that what will make us happy is success and money, but love cannot be bought, it is free. We take refuge in the virtual, but love is concrete. We do not accept ourselves as we are and we hide behind external facades, but love is not an appearance. We look for solutions in magicians and gurus, only to find ourselves without money and without peace,” he stressed.

At the end, Francis issued a warning to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, asking them not to judge the personal and social reality of others. “Look around you: you will see that so many people who live next to you feel hurt and alone, they need to feel loved. Take the step. Jesus asks you for a gaze that does not stop at exteriority, but goes to the heart; a gaze that does not judge, let us stop judging others, Jesus asks us for a gaze that does not judge, but is welcoming. Because only love heals life,” he concluded. (EPC)