Palma blesses the sick

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma celebrated Mass for the sick at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral yesterday.

In his homily commemorating the 21st World Day of the Sick and 155th anniversary of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France, Palma said: “One’s agony is not useless if he or she unites with the sufferings of Christ.”

“In a sense, all of us are sick. We need the spiritual doctor.

Sometimes what we need is not physical healing but moral healing,” the 62-year-old prelate told the congregation.

Palma, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philipines (CBCP), said “sufferings are salvific and necessary for to obtain the salvation won through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ.”

He cited the life of St. Anna Schaffer who was canonized with St. Pedro Calungsod last year.

“St. Anna Schaffer accepted her sufferings. There were many people who became saints since they accepted their sufferings and unite them with the that of the Lord,” Palma said.

Schaffer was a lay German woman who wanted to be a missionary. However, her dream wasn’t realized due to her physical condition.

She accepted the difficulties that she experienced as a way of sanctification. /Ador Vincent Mayol, Reporter