J.M.J. On this the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, we ponder the Mercy that Jesus gave to us on Calvary--the gift that Mary witnessed and in which she actually participated.
HEEDING THE CALL OF POPE FRANCIS:
THE EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY
Of all the things that
Pope Francis has said and done during his still brief Pontificate, his
insistence that we extend mercy to others as God has shown mercy to us remains
front and center.
It is no wonder, then,
that the Holy Father has announced for the Universal Church the Extraordinary
Jubilee of Mercy that will begin
on Tuesday, December 8, 2015—the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception—and
extend through Sunday, November 20, 2016—the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, King of the Universe.
Pope Francis writes, in
his letter of September 1, 2015 to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the President of
the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, that he
wishes “that the Jubilee be a living experience of the closeness of the Father,
whose tenderness is almost tangible, so that the faith of every believer may be
strengthened and thus testimony to it be ever more effective.”
This
Holy Year of Mercy has as its special focus the words of Jesus, “Be merciful,
even as Your Father is merciful.” (Saint Luke 6:36)
While indicating
concrete directions for how all the Faithful, wherever they may be and in
whatever situation they may find themselves, may benefit from the Extraordinary
Jubilee of Mercy, the Holy Father states: “I have asked the Church in this
Jubilee Year to rediscover the richness encompassed by the spiritual and
corporal works of mercy.”
Furthermore, according
to Pope Francis, “The experience of mercy, indeed, becomes visible in the
witness of concrete signs as Jesus Himself taught us.”
The Faithful are
encouraged to seek additional information about how the Extraordinary Jubilee
of Mercy will be commemorated, including how to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence,
from the Pontifical Council for the
Promotion of the New Evangelization (www.iubilaeummisericordiae.va) as well as from
their Local Bishops and Pastors.
A Lasting Legacy Of
Mercy
We, the followers of
Jesus Christ, have inherited a rich patrimony of mercy. The virtue of mercy is
well attested to in both Sacred Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition.
Christ Himself has
summoned us to be merciful. Who of us can forget the parable of the unmerciful
servant? In his Gospel (18:21-35), Saint Matthew recounts Our Lord’s words to
Saint Peter and His disciples about the man who was forgiven but then refused
to grant that mercy to his neighbor who owed him money.
Centuries ago, Saint
Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274) wrote in his Summa Theologica that mercy “takes its name ‘misericordia’ from denoting a
man’s compassionate heart (miserum cor) for another’s unhappiness.” The
Angelic Doctor continued: “. . . Mercy signifies grief for another’s distress.”
In the Dictionary of Moral Theology published in 1962, Dom Gregory
Manise, O.S.B., asserted: “Mercy, founded on compassion, differs from
compassion or the feeling of sympathy insofar as mercy implements this feeling
with a ready desire to render assistance—the essential element of mercy. The
works of mercy are the methods or actions which express this desire.”
Saint
John Paul II (1978-2005), in his Encyclical Dives in Misericordia (November 30, 1980), joined in the analysis of
mercy. “Jesus Christ taught that man not only receives and experiences the
mercy of God, but that he is also called ‘to practice mercy’ towards others:
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.’ The
Church sees in these words a call to action, and she tries to practice mercy.
All the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount indicate the way of conversion
and of reform of life, but the one referring to those who are merciful is
particularly eloquent in this regard. Man attains to the merciful love of God,
His mercy, to the extent that he himself is interiorly transformed in the
spirit of that love towards his neighbor.”
May we be grateful for the
clear voice of the Church and that of her sons and daughters in enunciating the
pressing need that we have to be merciful as Jesus is merciful to us.
How Do We Increase In
The Virtue Of Mercy?
Look no further than the
Seven Sacraments of the Church. By our participation in the Sacraments of
Penance and the Most Holy Eucharist, our souls become more immersed in
grace—the very life of God.
Learn Sacred Scripture;
live the Teachings of the Church.
Embrace those
opportunities to feed the hungry, give
drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick,
visit the imprisoned, bury the dead, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish sinners, bear wrongs patiently, forgive offenses willingly, comfort the afflicted and pray for the living and the
dead.
Our Mother Of Mercy
In his remarkable book, The Mother of the Savior and Our Interior Life, Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
(1877-1964) addressed the subject of Our Lady as the Mother of Mercy. “The title of Mother of Mercy is one of Mary’s
greatest. Mercy is not the same thing as mere emotional pity. Mercy is in the
will, pity is but a good inclination of the sensibility. Pity, which does not
exist in God Who is a pure spirit, leads us to suffer in unison with our
neighbor as if we felt his suffering in ourselves. It is a good inclination but
usually a timid one, being accompanied by fear of harm to ourselves and often
helpless to render effective aid.”
Here comes Our Lady.
She, along with her Divine Son, Jesus, offers to us a pattern for our efforts
to be merciful. In fact, the Son and the Mother are the template for our
attempts to pardon others. “She teaches us, though, that if mercy is not
justice it is not opposed to it as injustice is, but unites itself to it and
goes beyond it: most of all in pardoning, for to pardon is to go beyond what is
demanded by justice in forgiving an offense.”
Father Garrigou-Lagrange
explained that Our Mother of Mercy, to whom Pope Francis has entrusted the
preparations for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, “reminds us too that God
often gives us His mercy more than we need, more than He is obliged in justice
to Himself to give; that He gives us more than we merit—the grace of Holy Communion,
for example, which is not merited.”
Reflect on how the
merciful Ever-Virgin is for us, in the words of the Litany of Loreto, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the
afflicted, Help of Christians.
Wait No Longer
We desperately need
God’s Mercy. And our brothers and sisters desperately need that we extend it to
them. Pope Francis is profoundly aware of various “serious problems” today that
call forth mercy from us, especially that regarding the lack of respect for
human life.
Our sacred duty is
before us. Receive God’s mercy and convey it to everyone.
Nihil Obstat: Christopher T. Burgwald, S.T.D.
Imprimatur: +Paul J. Swain, D.D.
The Bishop of Sioux Falls
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
September 14, 2015
Imprimatur: +Paul J. Swain, D.D.
The Bishop of Sioux Falls
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
September 14, 2015
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