The Pope welcomes the Talità Kum parent group affected by this type of grief and explains that those who experience such a tragedy neither accept “trivial religious or sentimental words, sterile encouragements or phrases about circumstances” nor the “silencer for the suffering”: Jesus Yes, he allows himself to be touched by our pain and frees us from the burden that oppresses us by carrying it for us and with us
Francesca Sabatinelli – Vatican City
In moments of suffering, God's response is His closeness and His walking alongside those who suffer. Francesco welcomes with “a caress” of the heart and “with open arms” the pain of the Talità Kum group from Vicenza, parents who have lost a child, accompanied by the inspirer of the project, Father Ermes Ronchi. He turns to her with words of consolation that his colleague, Monsignor Filippo Ciampanelli, read out because of the bronchitis that has struck him in the last few days. For those who lose a child, the Pope said, one cannot painfully try to justify the suffering or resort to religious theories. Instead, it is necessary to “emulate the emotions and compassion of Jesus in the face of pain that lead him to experience firsthand the suffering of the world.”
The loss of a child is an experience that does not accept theoretical descriptions and rejects the banality of religious or sentimental words, sterile encouragements or cumbersome phrases that, although intended to comfort, end up hurting even more those to whom they, like you, are exposed every day hard internal struggle.
Prayer to achieve inner peace
A pain like the loss of a child, “excruciating and without any explanation,” Francis continues, “hangs on the thread of a prayer,” a cry addressed to God at every moment that does not solve the tragedy but is anchored in it through Questions that keep coming up: questions about why we grieve “an irreconcilable loss,” questions that ask where God was at that moment and at the same time give strength to move forward and find comfort in prayer.
In fact, there is nothing worse than silencing the pain, silencing the suffering, eliminating trauma without dealing with it, as our world, in our busyness and numbness, often pretends to do. However, the question addressed like a cry to God is healthy. It's prayer. When it forces us to delve into a painful memory and mourn the loss, it simultaneously becomes the first step of invocation and opens us to receive the consolation and inner peace that the Lord continually gives.
Jesus shares pain and suffering
The Lord is close to those who suffer and touches their “suffering”, he walks with those touched by death, extends his hand to help them rise, dries their tears and assures them that “death does not has the last word.” .
In suffering, God's first response is not a speech or a theory, but rather that he walks with us, that he is at our side. Jesus allowed himself to be touched by our pain, he walked the same path as us and does not leave us alone, but frees us from the burden that weighs us down, carrying it for us and with us.
The hope of the resurrection
“The Lord does not leave us without consolation,” is the conclusion of Francis' speech, and he responds to the tears and questions of those who suffer by giving them the certainty that he is returning the children who are no longer there Hand takes to helping them get up, just as he does with suffering parents, so that they too can hear his call to get up, not to lose hope and not to extinguish “the joy of life”.
And it is good to think that your daughters and sons, like the daughter of Jairus, have been taken by the hand of the Lord; and that one day you will see her again, that you will hug her again, that you will be able to enjoy her presence in a new light that no one can take away from you. Then you will see the cross with the eyes of the resurrection, as was the case for Mary and the apostles. That hope that blossomed on Easter morning is what the Lord wants to sow in your heart now. I wish you to welcome it, to grow it, to appreciate it in the midst of tears.