The Face of Mercy to Those in Misery Part #3

Part 3 of a Four Part Series

Our Holy Father, in his Apostolic Letter “Mercy and Misery” shows us how to take the graces of the Jubilee Year and carry them into the future. This series of four articles is looking at how building bridges of mercy, found in the Pope’s Letter, help us to reach out to 21st Century Man.

In the first article, we looked at three foundational bridges that help us experience and share mercy. The second article looked at how these foundational bridges are fortified through the Holy Spirit in the life of Church. In this article we want to look at two more bridges found in his Letter that show mercy can be personally given to the larger world. The Holy Father’s Letter looks specifically at how our bridges of mercy are to be directed to the family and to the experience of death.

9) Consolation. God’s closeness in our suffering, pain, and misunderstanding breaks the vicious circle of solitude that we often find ourselves trapped in. God’s mercy finds expression in the consolation we offer that shows God is never far from us. Consolation is a word of hope born of the faith in the Risen Lord. #13

Consolation needs to be expressed through:

a) Words of comfort and strength. It is important that the beauty of family life and the joy of love experienced within families, be upheld and re-given the great positive value it deserves. It is within the family that the privileged place for practicing mercy exists, and enables us to regard all human problems from the standpoint of God’s love. #14

b) Welcoming and accompanying. This is to be the Church’s pastoral ministry in reaching out to the current realities of family life and to the inescapable passage of death. Both of these experiences need a religious presence to accompany and offer the closeness of the Christian community at those moments of helplessness, solitude, uncertainty, and grief. #14-15

10) Works of Mercy. By its very nature, mercy becomes visible and tangible in specific and powerful acts. Mercy grows constantly and changes our lives. It brings about a new heart capable of loving to the full and purifies our eyes to perceive hidden needs. Mercy renews and redeems. The Holy Father says that it is the time to unleash the creativity of mercy to bring about new undertakings of showing God’s love, presence, closeness, goodness, and tenderness to the woundedness of human weakness and suffering. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy continue to be proof of mercy’s immense positive influence as a social value. Mercy is inclusive and is to spread like a wildfire to all forms of poverty, marginalization, attacks on the dignity of human beings, and the slavery of the contemporary world. These works of mercy are to make justice and a dignified life a concrete commitment that bears witness to the presence of God’s Kingdom. #16-19

Sharing God’s closeness and consolation is a means of putting flesh on mercy. Our Holy Father has taught us this past year that another name for mercy is love and that Jesus, as the face of mercy, personifies and makes tangible the love of God. He puts flesh to mercy. We too put flesh and a human face to mercy when we are present consoling and accompany others and through our corporal and spiritual works of mercy. This “wild fire” and accompaniment fosters hope and draws others into experiencing the God of Mercy. In our final article, we will look at how the last two bridges of mercy offer the “caress of God’s” love and help us live mercy out into the future.

[In theology and church writings, citing the paragraph or section number of a work is regular practice. For example, the (#3) at the end of one of my sentences means the third section of the document is quoted or referred to. Most sections within a document have paragraphs that are not numbered, but referred to with a letter, although no letter is found in the document. Thus (#1b) would be section #1, second paragraph (b).]