J.M.J.
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
The Feast of the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
September 14, 2015
The Office of the Marian Apostolate
523 N. Duluth Ave.
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-2714
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