by Colten Maertens-Pizzo

On January 21, 2023, Pope Francis spoke to the National Union for Persons Injured in Service. Although the speech was given to a national union that serves members of the military and law enforcement who were injured in the line of duty, the Pope extends his message on the transformative power of suffering to all those with physical disabilities and, even further, to situations of day-to-day conflict. Francis poignantly acknowledges that the path forward after a life-changing injury is not an easy one, describing it as an “overcoming.” Thankfully, this process yields tremendous fruit and offers transformative power for the soul and thereby for the whole person, body and soul. He highlights two points for reflection to underscore his message.

First, Francis praises the union for helping to give social meaning to the negative experiences of disability. These challenges will be unique to each person and commonly produce a false need to isolate. However, each wounding experience also testifies to an intuited need for solidarity. Hence, injuries act as an invitation “to overcome the tendency to close up in on oneself, in one’s own condition, to open up to encounter, to sharing, to solidarity. And this can generate a great change, as you are well aware. The limit, the burden of bearing it, remains as such, it does not disappear, but it receives a different meaning, a positive meaning. … And it is possible to do this together, because you support each other.”

Importantly, a genuine transformation does not reduce to the merely theoretical but instead indicates a deeply personal action, which Francis connects to adoration of the Eucharist. Since through his passion, Jesus “transformed the evil he had to suffer,” it is possible for those who follow him to accomplish a similar transformation and turn “evil into goodness, hatred into love, violence into healing.” For this reason, then, the Eucharist empowers those who are willing to receive a “different meaning, a positive meaning” for their wounds.

Second, Francis characterizes the burden of peacemaking as meeting conflict face-to-face. Sometimes this is a seemingly “invincible monster,” such as war. However, the Pope reminds us to “think of slander, think of gossip, which is a common, everyday thing, yet it does so much harm, it destroys.” Here again Francis tells his audience to come together in solidarity, “helping to resolve conflicts peacefully, seeking the common good and drawing attention to those who are least protected.”

As Jesus has promised, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt. 5:9). Because of this promise, physical limitations, especially wounds received through “fulfilment of service to law and public order,” are aptly described as sweetly bitter and remind us of the scars of Christ. Francis offers both a warning and an affirmation that while “it takes a word to hurt or kill a brother or a sister,” a word can also be used to calm and cure. Through Christ, therefore, wounds become symbols of our own interior peace and spiritual wellness, which can certainly spill over to include our whole being, body and soul.

Colten Maertens-Pizzo works for the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic School System.