Introduction
An apostolic letter is a document of
papal magisterium less solemn than an encyclical but of great importance. With
an elegance of spiritually pregnant language elevating God’s Mercy to its
rightful place Misericordia et Misera, a document under study is
an apostolic letter which is given by Pope
Francis in Rome, at Saint Peter’s Basilica, on 20 November 2016, the solemnity
of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the universe, to mark the conclusion of the Extraordinary
Jubilee Year of Mercy.
1. The name of the
apostolic letter
MISERICORDIA ET MISERA is St. Augustine’s expression used while unfolding the
loveliest and the most touching story of Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught
in the very act of adultery (Jn 8:1-11)–“the two of them alone
remained: mercy with misery.”
2. The nature of God’s
mercy
The bottomless ocean of God’s Mercy is
like the leaven that makes the dough rise (cf. Mt 13:33), or
like the mustard seed that grows into a tree (cf. Lk 13:19)
(19). Sinful human beings are renewed and redeemed by God’s Mercy. God’s
nature seen at its best, in every merciful encounter we find a hope-filled
engagement between two hearts: the heart of God and the human heart. In this
encounter human heart is warmed and healed by God’s heart, hearts of stone
become hearts of flesh (cf. Ezek 36:26) and the human person
becomes a “new creation” (Gal 6:15) just as iron placed in the fire
is changed into fire (16). Unlike lightning that never strikes in the same
place twice, in the sacramental life, God’s mercy is granted us in abundance which
is very visible especially in the formulae of the two “sacraments of healing”,
namely, the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation and the sacrament of the
Anointing of the Sick (5).
The woman caught in the very act of
adultery [Jn 8:1-11] (1) and the woman at the home of a Pharisee (cf. Lk 7:36-50)
who poured perfume over Jesus’ feet, bathed them with her tears and dried them
with her hair (cf. vv. 37-38) experienced the forgiving love of Jesus
and our heavenly Father who always forgive without any condition (Ps 136;
Ex 34:6). Jesus even extended his forgiveness from the Cross [Lk 23:34]
(2).
3. Mercy gives
rise to an inexpressible joy
In an ambience of truest and sincerity,
both the women mentioned in this document came to Jesus and drunk deep of his
mercy and felt free and happy as never before. Mercy gives rise to
inexpressible joy that helps us to do what is good, think what is good and
despise sadness and live in God (3). As we scale the mount of holiness, may
this joy be rooted in our hearts, help us to “Rejoice in the Lord
always” (Phil 4:4; cf. 1 Thess 5:16) and may we never
allow it to be robbed from us by our troubles and concerns especially in a
technological civilization where emptiness, sadness, loneliness, boredom,
despair and depression appear to be on the rise, particularly among young
people who eventually become victims of interior conflict about the basics of
Christian life (3).
Through his total self-gift–his death
and resurrection, Jesus ‘returned the Mosaic Law to its true and original
intent–the love of God–that reads our desire to be understood, forgiven
and set free. It is striking and makes one wonder that Jesus clothed the
misery of sin with the mercy of love. To those who wanted to judge and condemn the
woman, Jesus replied with a lengthy and deafening silence so much so that they
were seized by a sudden pang of their own conscience and left the scene one by
one (1).
4. The
contribution of the ‘Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy’
Let it be said at once that in this
Jubilee year of mercy, each of us has experienced the mercy; favour,
forgiveness (Ps 85:1-2) and loving gaze of God casting all our sins
into the depths of the sea and behind his back thus, removing all our
transgressions (cf. Mic7:19; Is 38:17; Ps 103:12)
because of which we cannot remain unaffected, for it changes our lives (4).
With the help of the Spirit the Church
attentively listened to the Father’s voice, intensely experienced his presence
and closeness, was able to see with greater clarity Jesus’ gift of and mandated
regarding forgiveness, felt his life-giving breath poured out upon the Church
and was reminded of her mission: “Receive the Holy Spirit: if you forgive the
sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”
(Jn 20:22-23) (4).
In the light of our common
creatureliness, we have learned that God bends down to us (cf. Hos 11:4)
so that in imitation of him we too may bend down to our brothers and sisters.
The Holy Year of Mercy has set us on the path of charity, and calls
us to travel daily with fidelity and joy. It is required of us that we draw
near to our brothers and sisters if we want to be close to Christ (16).
The year was loaded with solidarity
with the poor and the unhappy; many acts of kindness by many volunteers towards
the weak and the vulnerable, towards those most lonely and abandoned but often
a number of such charitable acts
remained hidden since they were daily expressed in discreet and quiet gestures.
Sparing a thought for those who suffered pain, these were efforts made to show
God’s presence and closeness that in
turn also helped many people draw closer to the Church (17).
5. Mercy must last
a lifetime, not just a year
Attention to our cultural currents, the
same meeting between Jesus and the two women must be continually celebrated and lived
out in our communities and local churches (1). Without putting in the
cold storage the blessings and insight received in this grace-filled year, we need
to unleash the creativity of mercy, to bring about new undertakings and produce
the fruit of grace. Being aware that lost opportunity never returns, the Church
today needs to tell of those “many other signs” that Jesus worked, which “are
not written” (Jn 20:30). Having own personal works to tend to, we are
strongly exhorted to do something in the area of hunger and thirst, migration,
diseases, prisoners, Illiteracy, culture of extreme individualism, and the
experience of God. Putting our trust in the granaries and treasures of divine
providence, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy should continue in
our own day to be proof of mercy’s immense positive influence as a social
value. Before time slips through our fingers like tiny grains of sand,
mercy impels us to do all we can to restore dignity to millions of people who,
with us, are called to build a “city which is reliable” (18).
6. How to give birth to ‘a culture of mercy’
In tune with the time, culture of mercy
is shaped in assiduous and spirit-filled prayer, inspired by the lives of
saints and being close to the poor (Gal 2:10) in which no one looks
at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers
and sisters. Inspired by the same one God and none of them being alike, the
works of mercy are “handcrafted”, crafted in a thousand different ways but fashioned
from the same “material”, mercy itself.
We may be nobody in the eyes of the
world yet every little work of mercy affects a person’s entire life. Leaving behind
the temptation to hide behind indifference, non-involvement and individualism
in order to lead a comfortable life free of problems, Christian community,
should take up the works of mercy specially for the cause of the poor as Jesus
identified himself with the poor people (Jn12:8) (20).
7. Priests’
permission to absolve the ‘grave sin’ of abortion has been extended
Exceedingly important to realize the
fact that one of the most important lines in this document could be this: “I
henceforth grant to all priests, in virtue of their ministry, the faculty to
absolve those who have committed the sin of procured abortion”. Fully
guided by the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis emphasizes the fact that abortion is a
grave sin that puts an end to an innocent life but he also says that there is
no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant
heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father. To the last atom of their
strength, on this journey of special reconciliation, may every priest be a
guide, support and comfort to penitents who sometimes even experience a total
spiritual collapse (12).
8. SSPX priests
can continue hearing confessions
For the pastoral benefit of those
faithful who for various reasons, attend churches officiated by the priests of
the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, genuinely willing to deal with the
depth of their unworthiness, can validly and licitly receive the sacramental
absolution of their sins as it was for the Holy Year of Mercy until further
provisions are made (12).
9. Missionaries of
mercy continue their ministry until further notice
A work of great and everlasting beauty,
this extraordinary ministry of the missionaries of mercy does not end with the
closing of the Holy Door. With the thought of a spiritual wellbeing of every
faithful, Pope Francis has allowed it to continue until further notice so that
the grace of the Jubilee remains alive and effective all over the world. It
will be supervised by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New
Evangelization to make use of this extraordinary ministry to the maximum (9).
10. The Sacrament
of Reconciliation must regain its central place in the Christian life.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation must
regain its central place in the Christian life so that our friendship with the
Lord remains in constant repair and progress towards a perfect human-divine
relationship (11). In the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation God’s
ocean of limitless mercy and his embrace
is directly experienced by us sinners who carry the burden of the contradiction
between our desire to do something and what we do in reality (Rom 7:14-21).
Grace always precedes us. Grace is stronger than sin. This grace is more
powerfully experienced when we live a life of charity for “love covers a
multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8) and forgive others as we expect to
be forgiven (Mt 6:12) by others. Resentment, anger and revenge
should not overtake us, making our lives unhappy and become an impediment to a
joyful commitment to mercy as well as full range and depth of God-experience in
our life (8).
The Missionaries of Mercy
while rendering effective pastoral service emphasized that God
places no roadblocks in the way of those who look for him with a repentant
heart. Many have encountered the Lord once more in the sacrament of
Confession and found joy in their life. The opportunity to live our faith
also as an experience of reconciliation should not be missed. St. Paul urges
us: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20), and be “a new
creation” (2 Cor 5:17) (9).
11. The priests are
to carefully prepare for the ministry of confession
While thanking them all, Pope
Francis urges all priests to prepare carefully for the truly priestly
mission, the ministry of confession–an antidote to sin, to be welcoming, witnesses of
fatherly love and mercy whatever the gravity of the sin involved, attentive in
helping penitents to reflect on their mistakes, clear in
presenting moral principles, willing to walk
patiently beside the penitents, far-sighted in
discerning individual cases, generous in dispensing God’s
forgiveness and to be open-hearted with them since every penitent
is a reminder that he himself is a sinner as well as a minister of mercy (10).
The priests are invited to reflect on
the confession of Paul to Timothy that he was the greatest of sinners, “but for
this reason I received mercy” (1 Tim 1:16; 1 Tim 1:12-13;
2 Cor 5:18). Cultivating in themselves the capacity to sense the
fading spiritual health of every soul and without acting in a way that can
contradict the experience of mercy that the penitent seeks, even in the most
complex cases where there is a temptation to apply a Justice derived from rules
alone, the confessors–the coaches of human hearts must believe in the power
flowing from divine grace and help light up the space of personal conscience
with God’s infinite love (cf. 1 Jn 3:20).
Cost what it may, with a high degree of
preciseness, the priests must be prepared and be capable for the “ministry of reconciliation”
(2 Cor 5:18) so that everyone is afforded the opportunity of
experiencing the liberating power of forgiveness. A favorable occasion to
stimulate the goodness lying dormant in each of us could be the 24
Hours for the Lord, a celebration held in proximity to the Fourth Sunday of
Lent which has a great pastoral value in encouraging a more fervent experience
of the sacrament of Confession–a truly divine-human dialogue (11).
12. Great care is
to be taken in preparing, preaching and listening to the homily
In the liturgical setting, hearing
the word of God takes on particular significance. In the biblical
readings, we retrace the history of our salvation through the proclamation of
God’s tireless work of mercy. The Lord continues to speak to us today so that
we can concretely experience his closeness to us. Himself a spiritual man and
his own example the best commentary and instruction on homiletics, Pope Francis
strongly reminds priests and deacons that great care be given to preparing the
homily and to preaching in general. He says that both homiletics and catechesis
need to be sustained by this pulsing heart of the Christian life (6).
13. Engage actively
in the ministry of New the Evangelization
It is time off we should go with
burning urgency to look to the future and to understand how best to continue,
with liveliness, joy, fidelity and enthusiasm, in the work of the new
evangelization experiencing and celebrating the richness of God’s mercy
specially in each moments of the Eucharistic celebration (Collect, Preface,
more specially of the season of Lent) without any limit and without making the
Holy Spirit sad who constantly inspires us to take new paths in bringing
salvation to everyone (5).
14. The Bible should be studied, celebrated, better understood, disseminated
and widely diffused
The hub of God’s very life and love,
the Bible is the great story of the marvels of God’s mercy.
Every one of its pages is steeped in the love of the Father for his creation
despite the people’s infidelity. In human concepts and terms, Jesus’ life and
preaching called everyone to be a permanent instrument of his mercy and
forgiveness (cf. Jn 20:23). Like lectio divina, every
other efforts must be made so that God’s word is increasingly studied,
celebrated, better known, better understood, disseminated and widely diffused
(7).
15. Words of consolation
are acts of mercy
All of us need consolation because no
one is spared suffering, pain and misunderstanding that comes from a spiteful remark born of
envy, jealousy or anger, betrayal, violence, abandonment and death–the ultimate
act of love towards those we leave behind and towards God whom we go forth to
meet. Consolation is another face of mercy–“Comfort, comfort my people”
(Is 40:1). God’s mercy finds expression also in the closeness,
affection and support of our brothers and sisters at times of sadness and affliction
through a reassuring word, an embrace, a caress, a prayer and even through
silence which belongs very much to our language of consolation. (15).
16. Pastors must
be close to the people in good times and in bad times
Though nothing and no one can ever
separate us from the love of God (cf. Rom 8:35) yet the
priest’s sharing in moment of death in a family is an important form of
pastoral care, for it symbolizes the closeness of the Christian
community at a moment of weakness, solitude, uncertainty and grief of a family (15).
One cannot help wondering that Family life and love is often interrupted by
suffering, betrayal and loneliness. Even joy at the gift of children is
accompanied by concern about their growth and education, and their prospects
for happiness and fulfillment in life. As the apple never falls far from the
tree, each of us carries the richness and the burdens of our personal history
which makes us different from everyone else. So it is demanded,
especially of priests, a careful, profound and far-sighted spiritual
discernment, so that everyone can feel accepted by God, participate actively in
the life of the community and be part of that People of God which journeys
tirelessly towards the fullness of his kingdom of justice, love, forgiveness
and mercy (14).
17. Identify new
works of mercy
Out
of deep and genuine conviction, concrete signs of mercy have been
performed during this Holy Year by Communities, families and individuals and relived
the joy of sharing and the beauty of solidarity. But this is not good enough. Profound
and detailed analysis will betray the fact that there are new forms of
spiritual and material poverty that assault human dignity. Punctuated with genuine
prayers, we need to be always vigilant and ready to identify new works of
mercy, to give new expression to the traditional works of mercy and to practise
them with generosity and enthusiasm (19).
18. Be active in
implementing social justice
Qualitatively different from all sorts
of charitable work, we need but think of one corporal work of mercy–“to cloth
the naked” (cf. Mt 25:36, 38, 43, 44; Gen 3:7-8; Gen 3:21;
Jn 19:23-24). Rather than loading the responsibility over to
secular NGOs and charitable institutions, the Church is called to be the “tunic
of Christ” and to clothe her Lord once more and be committed to solidarity
with the naked of the world for Jesus says: “I was naked and you clothed me” (Mt 25:36).
Almost always unseen by the public light, the enemies that attack the dignity
of a person are unemployment, lack of sufficient salary; lack of home,
land, various forms of discrimination specially children who are the young
adults tomorrow, who suffer violence that rob them of the joy of life.
The social character of mercy demands that we cannot simply
stand by and do nothing but to banish indifference and hypocrisy, to contribute
actively and selflessly to making justice and a dignified life (19).
19. Celebration of
the World Day of the Poor
With utmost seriousness, the entire
Church is asked to celebrate, on the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time,
the World Day of the Poor which could be the worthiest way to
prepare for the celebration of the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of
the Universe, who identified himself with
the little ones and the poor and who will judge us on our works of mercy
(cf. Mt 25:31-46) to reflect on how poverty is at the very
heart of the Gospel and that, as long as Lazarus lies at the door of our homes
(cf. Lk 16:19-21), there can be no justice or social peace, no
genuine form of new evangelization (cf. Mt 11:5) to renew the
face of the Church (21).
20. The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Practice of Mercy
With the gift and help of the Holy Spirit
the Church is able to see with incisive clarity the gift and mandate of Jesus
Christ regarding forgiveness (Jn 20:22-23) (4). In the formula of absolution and anointing given by a
catholic priest the role of the Holy Spirit is very much visible
in reconciling us and the world to God (5). Even in the past despite the people’s infidelity,
the Holy Spirit made use of the prophets and the wisdom writings to shape the
history of Israel as a nation that was close to God and loved by him (7.3). Without the help of the Holy Spirit it
is impossible to contribute actively and selflessly to promote justice and a
dignified life in order to give an expression of the presence of God’s kingdom
among us (19) because the culture of mercy is shaped in assiduous prayer and
being docile to the working of the Holy Spirit (20).
21. Blessed Virgin
Mary as model and guide in the practice of mercy
The Holy Mother of God always looks upon us with her eyes
of mercy the first to show us the way and to accompany us in our witness of
love. The Mother of Mercy gathers us all under the protection of her
mantle. Let us trust in her maternal assistance and follow her perennial
counsel to look to Jesus, the radiant face of God’s mercy (22).
Conclusion
All told and done, may the Holy Trinity–Father,
Son and the Holy Spirit; Blessed Virgin Mary–the mother of Mercy and all
the saints and angels help us–poor, banished children of Eve to
continually experience God’s mercy in our lives and in turn be passionate,
committed and fervent in showing mercy to others especially when life throws
one of its little curves at any one of us so that the rays of God’s mercy may
perpetually peep into the living rooms of our hearts pushing away the darkness
of sin forever.
Fr. Blasius Tete
Shillong
