BULL OF INDICTION OF THE EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF
MERCY
FRANCIS
BISHOP OF ROME
SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD
TO ALL WHO READ THIS LETTER
GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE
1. Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s
mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith. Mercy
has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in
him. The Father, “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), after having revealed his name to
Moses as “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex34:6), has never ceased to show, in various
ways throughout history, his divine nature. In the “fullness of time” (Gal
4:4), when everything had been arranged according to his plan of salvation, he
sent his only Son into the world, born of the Virgin Mary, to reveal his love
for us in a definitive way. Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father (cf. Jn 14:9).
Jesus of Nazareth, by his words, his actions, and his entire person[1] reveals
the mercy of God.
2. We need constantly to contemplate the
mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation
depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy
Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us.
Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks
sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy:
the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being
loved forever despite our sinfulness.
3. At times we are called to gaze even more
attentively on mercy so that we may become a more effective sign of the
Father’s action in our lives. For this reason I have proclaimed an
Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy as a special time for the Church, a time when
the witness of believers might grow stronger and more effective.
The Holy Year will open on 8 December 2015, the Solemnity
of the Immaculate Conception. This liturgical feast day recalls God’s action
from the very beginning of the history of mankind. After the sin of Adam and
Eve, God did not wish to leave humanity alone in the throes of evil. And so he
turned his gaze to Mary, holy and immaculate in love (cf. Eph 1:4), choosing
her to be the Mother of man’s Redeemer. When faced with the gravity of sin, God
responds with the fullness of mercy. Mercy will always be greater than any sin,
and no one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready to forgive. I
will have the joy of opening the Holy Door on the Solemnity of the Immaculate
Conception. On that day, the Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through
which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons,
and instils hope.
On the following Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, the
Holy Door of the Cathedral of Rome – that is, the Basilica of Saint John Lateran
– will be opened. In the following weeks, the Holy Doors of the other Papal
Basilicas will be opened. On the same Sunday, I will announce that in every
local church, at the cathedral – the mother church of the faithful in any
particular area – or, alternatively, at the co-cathedral or another church of
special significance, a Door of Mercy will be opened for the duration of the
Holy Year. At the discretion of the local ordinary, a similar door may be
opened at any shrine frequented by large groups of pilgrims, since visits to
these holy sites are so often grace-filled moments, as people discover a path
to conversion. Every Particular Church, therefore, will be directly involved in
living out this Holy Year as an extraordinary moment of grace and spiritual
renewal. Thus the Jubilee will be celebrated both in Rome and in the Particular
Churches as a visible sign of the Church’s universal communion.
4. I have chosen the date of 8 December
because of its rich meaning in the recent history of the Church. In fact, I
will open the Holy Door on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. The Church feels a great need to keep this
event alive. With the Council, the Church entered a new phase of her history.
The Council Fathers strongly perceived, as a true breath of the Holy Spirit, a
need to talk about God to men and women of their time in a more accessible way.
The walls which for too long had made the Church a kind of fortress were torn
down and the time had come to proclaim the Gospel in a new way. It was a new
phase of the same evangelization that had existed from the beginning. It was a
fresh undertaking for all Christians to bear witness to their faith with
greater enthusiasm and conviction. The Church sensed a responsibility to be a
living sign of the Father’s love in the world.
We recall the poignant words of Saint John XXIII when,
opening the Council, he indicated the path to follow: “Now the Bride of Christ
wishes to use the medicine of mercy rather than taking up arms of severity… The
Catholic Church, as she holds high the torch of Catholic truth at this
Ecumenical Council, wants to show herself a loving mother to all; patient,
kind, moved by compassion and goodness toward her separated children”.[2]
Blessed Paul VI spoke in a similar vein at the closing of the Council: “We
prefer to point out how charity has been the principal religious feature of
this Council… the old story of the Good Samaritan has been the model of the
spirituality of the Council… a wave of affection and admiration flowed from the
Council over the modern world of humanity. Errors were condemned, indeed,
because charity demanded this no less than did truth, but for individuals
themselves there was only admonition, respect and love. Instead of depressing
diagnoses, encouraging remedies; instead of direful predictions, messages of
trust issued from the Council to the present-day world. The modern world’s
values were not only respected but honoured, its efforts approved, its
aspirations purified and blessed… Another point we must stress is this: all
this rich teaching is channelled in one direction, the service of mankind, of
every condition, in every weakness and need”.[3]
With these sentiments of gratitude for everything the
Church has received, and with a sense of responsibility for the task that lies
ahead, we shall cross the threshold of the Holy Door fully confident that the
strength of the Risen Lord, who constantly supports us on our pilgrim way, will
sustain us. May the Holy Spirit, who guides the steps of believers in
cooperating with the work of salvation wrought by Christ, lead the way and
support the People of God so that they may contemplate the face of mercy.[4]
5. The Jubilee year will close with the
liturgical Solemnity of Christ the King on 20 November 2016. On that day, as we
seal the Holy Door, we shall be filled, above all, with a sense of gratitude
and thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity for having granted us an
extraordinary time of grace. We will entrust the life of the Church, all
humanity, and the entire cosmos to the Lordship of Christ, asking him to pour
out his mercy upon us like the morning dew, so that everyone may work together
to build a brighter future. How much I desire that the year to come will be
steeped in mercy, so that we can go out to every man and woman, bringing the
goodness and tenderness of God! May the balm of mercy reach everyone, both
believers and those far away, as a sign that the Kingdom of God is already
present in our midst!
6. “It is proper to God to exercise mercy,
and he manifests his omnipotence particularly in this way”.[5] Saint Thomas
Aquinas’ words show that God’s mercy, rather than a sign of weakness, is the
mark of his omnipotence. For this reason the liturgy, in one of its most
ancient collects, has us pray: “O God, who reveal your power above all in your
mercy and forgiveness …”[6]Throughout the history of humanity, God will always
be the One who is present, close, provident, holy, and merciful.
“Patient and merciful.” These words often go together in
the Old Testament to describe God’s nature. His being merciful is concretely
demonstrated in his many actions throughout the history of salvation where his
goodness prevails over punishment and destruction. In a special way the Psalms bring to the fore
the grandeur of his merciful action: “He forgives all your iniquity, he heals
all your diseases, he redeems your life from the pit, he crowns you with
steadfast love and mercy” (Ps 103:3-4). Another psalm, in an even more explicit
way, attests to the concrete signs of his mercy: “He executes justice for the
oppressed; he gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the
Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners, he upholds
the widow and the fatherless; but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin” (Ps
146:7-9). Here are some other expressions of the Psalmist: “He heals the
brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds… The Lord lifts up the downtrodden, he
casts the wicked to the ground” (Ps 147:3, 6). In short, the mercy of God is
not an abstract idea, but a concrete reality with which he reveals his love as
of that of a father or a mother, moved to the very depths out of love for their
child. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that this is a “visceral” love. It
gushes forth from the depths naturally, full of tenderness and compassion,
indulgence and mercy.
7. “For his mercy endures forever.” This is
the refrain that repeats after each verse in Psalm 136 as it narrates the
history of God’s revelation. By virtue of mercy, all the events of the Old
Testament are replete with profound salvific import. Mercy renders God’s
history with Israel a history of salvation. To repeat continually “for his
mercy endures forever,” as the psalm does, seems to break through the
dimensions of space and time, inserting everything into the eternal mystery of
love. It is as if to say that not only in history, but for all eternity man
will always be under the merciful gaze of the Father. It is no accident that
the people of Israel wanted to include this psalm – the “Great Hallel,” as it
is called – in its most important liturgical feast days.
Before his Passion, Jesus prayed with this psalm of mercy.
Matthew attests to this in his Gospel when he says that, “when they had sung a
hymn” (26:30), Jesus and his disciples went out to the Mount of Olives. While
he was instituting the Eucharist as an everlasting memorial of himself and his
paschal sacrifice, he symbolically placed this supreme act of revelation in the
light of his mercy. Within the very same context of mercy, Jesus entered upon
his passion and death, conscious of the great mystery of love that he would
consummate on the Cross. Knowing that Jesus himself prayed this psalm makes it
even more important for us as Christians, challenging us to take up the refrain
in our daily lives by praying these words of praise: “for his mercy endures
forever.”
8. With our eyes fixed on Jesus and his
merciful gaze, we experience the love of the Most Holy Trinity. The mission
Jesus received from the Father was that of revealing the mystery of divine love
in its fullness. “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16), John affirms for the first and
only time in all of Holy Scripture. This love has now been made visible and
tangible in Jesus’ entire life. His person is nothing but love, a love given
gratuitously. The relationships he forms with the people who approach him
manifest something entirely unique and unrepeatable. The signs he works,
especially in favour of sinners, the poor, the marginalized, the sick, and the
suffering, are all meant to teach mercy. Everything in him speaks of mercy.
Nothing in him is devoid of compassion.
Jesus, seeing the crowds
of people who followed him, realized that they were tired and exhausted, lost
and without a guide, and he felt deep compassion for them (cf. Mt 9:36). On the
basis of this compassionate love he healed the sick who were presented to him
(cf. Mt 14:14), and with just a few loaves of bread and fish he satisfied the
enormous crowd (cf. Mt 15:37). What moved Jesus in all of these situations was
nothing other than mercy, with which he read the hearts of those he encountered
and responded to their deepest need. When he came upon the widow of Nain taking
her son out for burial, he felt great compassion for the immense suffering of
this grieving mother, and he gave back her son by raising him from the
dead (cf. Lk 7:15). After freeing the
demoniac in the country of the Gerasenes, Jesus entrusted him with this
mission: “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for
you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mk 5:19). The calling of Matthew is also
presented within the context of mercy. Passing by the tax collector’s booth,
Jesus looked intently at Matthew. It was a look full of mercy that forgave the
sins of that man, a sinner and a tax collector, whom Jesus chose – against the
hesitation of the disciples – to become one of the Twelve. Saint Bede the
Venerable, commenting on this Gospel passage, wrote that Jesus looked upon
Matthew with merciful love and chose him: miserando atque eligendo.[7] This
expression impressed me so much that I chose it for my episcopal motto.
9. In the parables devoted to mercy, Jesus
reveals the nature of God as that of a Father who never gives up until he has
forgiven the wrong and overcome rejection with compassion and mercy. We know
these parables well, three in particular: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and
the father with two sons (cf. Lk 15:1-32). In these parables, God is always
presented as full of joy, especially when he pardons. In them we find the core
of the Gospel and of our faith, because mercy is presented as a force that
overcomes everything, filling the heart with love and bringing consolation
through pardon.
From another parable, we cull an important teaching for our
Christian lives. In reply to Peter’s question about how many times it is
necessary to forgive, Jesus says: “I do not say seven times, but seventy times
seven times” (Mt 18:22). He then goes on to tell the parable of the “ruthless
servant,” who, called by his master to return a huge amount, begs him on his
knees for mercy. His master cancels his
debt. But he then meets a fellow servant who owes him a few cents and who in
turn begs on his knees for mercy, but the first servant refuses his request and
throws him into jail. When the master hears of the matter, he becomes
infuriated and, summoning the first servant back to him, says, “Should not you
have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (Mt 18:33).
Jesus concludes, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if
you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Mt 18:35).
This parable contains a profound teaching for all of us.
Jesus affirms that mercy is not only an action of the Father, it becomes a
criterion for ascertaining who his true children are. In short, we are called
to show mercy because mercy has first been shown to us. Pardoning offences
becomes the clearest expression of merciful love, and for us Christians it is
an imperative from which we cannot excuse ourselves. At times how hard it seems
to forgive! And yet pardon is the instrument placed into our fragile hands to
attain serenity of heart. To let go of anger, wrath, violence, and revenge are
necessary conditions to living joyfully. Let us therefore heed the Apostle’s
exhortation: “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph 4:26). Above all,
let us listen to the words of Jesus who made mercy an ideal of life and a
criterion for the credibility of our faith: “Blessed are the merciful, for they
shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7): the beatitude to which we should particularly
aspire in this Holy Year.
As we can see in Sacred Scripture, mercy is a key word that
indicates God’s action towards us. He does not limit himself merely to
affirming his love, but makes it visible and tangible. Love, after all, can
never be just an abstraction. By its very nature, it indicates something
concrete: intentions, attitudes, and behaviours that are shown in daily living.
The mercy of God is his loving concern for each one of us. He feels
responsible; that is, he desires our wellbeing and he wants to see us happy,
full of joy, and peaceful. This is the path which the merciful love of
Christians must also travel. As the Father loves, so do his children. Just as
he is merciful, so we are called to be merciful to each other.
10. Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s
life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she
makes present to believers; nothing in her preaching and in her witness to the
world can be lacking in mercy. The Church’s very credibility is seen in how she
shows merciful and compassionate love. The Church “has an endless desire to
show mercy”.[8] Perhaps we have long since forgotten how to show and live the
way of mercy. The temptation, on the one hand, to focus exclusively on justice
made us forget that this is only the first, albeit necessary and indispensable
step. But the Church needs to go beyond and strive for a higher and more
important goal. On the other hand, sad to say, we must admit that the practice
of mercy is waning in the wider culture. In some cases the word seems to have
dropped out of use. However, without a witness to mercy, life becomes fruitless
and sterile, as if sequestered in a barren desert. The time has come for the
Church to take up the joyful call to mercy once more. It is time to return to
the basics and to bear the weaknesses and struggles of our brothers and
sisters. Mercy is the force that reawakens us to new life and instils in us the
courage to look to the future with hope.
11. Let us not forget the great teaching offered
by Saint John Paul II in his second Encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, which at
the time came unexpectedly, its theme catching many by surprise. There are two
passages in particular to which I would like to draw attention. First, Saint
John Paul II highlighted the fact that we had forgotten the theme of mercy in
today’s cultural milieu: “The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of
people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to
exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.
The word and the concept of ‘mercy’ seem to cause uneasiness in man, who,
thanks to the enormous development of science and technology, never before
known in history, has become the master of the earth and has subdued and
dominated it (cf. Gen 1:28). This dominion over the earth, sometimes understood
in a one-sided and superficial way, seems to have no room for mercy… And this
is why, in the situation of the Church and the world today, many individuals
and groups guided by a lively sense of faith are turning, I would say almost
spontaneously, to the mercy of God”.[9]
Furthermore, Saint John Paul II pushed for a more urgent
proclamation and witness to mercy in the contemporary world: “It is dictated by
love for man, for all that is human and which, according to the intuitions of
many of our contemporaries, is threatened by an immense danger. The mystery of
Christ… obliges me to proclaim mercy as God’s merciful love, revealed in that
same mystery of Christ. It likewise obliges me to have recourse to that mercy
and to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the
Church and of the world”.[10] This teaching is more pertinent than ever and
deserves to be taken up once again in this Holy Year. Let us listen to his
words once more: “The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and
proclaims mercy – the most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the
Redeemer – and when she brings people close to the sources of the Saviour’s
mercy, of which she is the trustee and dispenser”.[11]
12. The Church is commissioned to announce the
mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel, which in its own way must
penetrate the heart and mind of every person. The Spouse of Christ must pattern
her behaviour after the Son of God who went out to everyone without exception.
In the present day, as the Church is charged with the task of the new
evangelization, the theme of mercy needs to be proposed again and again with
new enthusiasm and renewed pastoral action. It is absolutely essential for the
Church and for the credibility of her message that she herself live and testify
to mercy. Her language and her gestures must transmit mercy, so as to touch the
hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to
the Father.
The Church’s first truth is the love of Christ. The Church
makes herself a servant of this love and mediates it to all people: a love that
forgives and expresses itself in the gift of oneself. Consequently, wherever
the Church is present, the mercy of the Father must be evident. In our
parishes, communities, associations and movements, in a word, wherever there
are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.
13. We want to live this Jubilee Year in light
of the Lord’s words: Merciful like the Father. The Evangelist reminds us of the
teaching of Jesus who says, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful” (Lk
6:36). It is a programme of life as demanding as it is rich with joy and peace.
Jesus’s command is directed to anyone willing to listen to his voice (cf. Lk
6:27). In order to be capable of mercy, therefore, we must first of all dispose
ourselves to listen to the Word of God. This means rediscovering the value of
silence in order to meditate on the Word that comes to us. In this way, it will
be possible to contemplate God’s mercy and adopt it as our lifestyle.
14. The practice of pilgrimage has a special
place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in
this life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the human being is a viator, a pilgrim
travelling along the road, making his way to the desired destination.
Similarly, to reach the Holy Door in Rome or in any other place in the world,
everyone, each according to his or her ability, will have to make a pilgrimage.
This will be a sign that mercy is also a goal to reach and requires dedication
and sacrifice. May pilgrimage be an impetus to conversion: by crossing the
threshold of the Holy Door, we will find the strength to embrace God’s mercy
and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as the Father has been
with us.
The Lord Jesus shows us
the steps of the pilgrimage to attain our goal: “Judge not, and you will not be
judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be
forgiven; give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give
will be the measure you get back” (Lk 6:37-38). The Lord asks us above all not
to judge and not to condemn. If anyone wishes to avoid God’s judgement, he
should not make himself the judge of his brother or sister. Human beings,
whenever they judge, look no farther than the surface, whereas the Father looks
into the very depths of the soul. How much harm words do when they are
motivated by feelings of jealousy and envy! To speak ill of others puts them in
a bad light, undermines their reputation and leaves them prey to the whims of
gossip. To refrain from judgement and condemnation means, in a positive sense,
to know how to accept the good in every person and to spare him any suffering
that might be caused by our partial judgment, our presumption to know
everything about him. But this is still not sufficient to express mercy. Jesus
asks us also to forgive and to give. To be instruments of mercy because it was
we who first received mercy from God. To be generous with others, knowing that
God showers his goodness upon us with immense generosity.
Merciful like the Father, therefore, is the “motto” of this
Holy Year. In mercy, we find proof of how God loves us. He gives his entire
self, always, freely, asking nothing in return. He comes to our aid whenever we
call upon him. What a beautiful thing that the Church begins her daily prayer
with the words, “O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me”
(Ps 70:2)! The assistance we ask for is already the first step of God’s mercy
toward us. He comes to assist us in our weakness. And his help consists in
helping us accept his presence and closeness to us. Day after day, touched by
his compassion, we also can become compassionate towards others.
15. In this Holy Year, we look forward to the
experience of opening our hearts to those living on the outermost fringes of
society: fringes which modern society itself creates. How many uncertain and
painful situations there are in the world today! How many are the wounds borne
by the flesh of those who have no voice because their cry is muffled and
drowned out by the indifference of the rich! During this Jubilee, the Church
will be called even more to heal these wounds, to assuage them with the oil of
consolation, to bind them with mercy and cure them with solidarity and vigilant
care. Let us not fall into humiliating indifference or a monotonous routine
that prevents us from discovering what is new! Let us ward off destructive
cynicism! Let us open our eyes and see the misery of the world, the wounds of
our brothers and sisters who are denied their dignity, and let us recognize
that we are compelled to heed their cry for help! May we reach out to them and
support them so they can feel the warmth of our presence, our friendship, and
our fraternity! May their cry become our own, and together may we break down
the barriers of indifference that too often reign supreme and mask our
hypocrisy and egoism!
It is my burning desire that, during this Jubilee, the
Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. It
will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of
poverty. And let us enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the
poor have a special experience of God’s mercy. Jesus introduces us to these
works of mercy in his preaching so that we can know whether or not we are
living as his disciples. Let us rediscover these corporal works of mercy: to
feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the
stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. And let us
not forget the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the
ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offences, bear
patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead.
We cannot escape the Lord’s words to us, and they will
serve as the criteria upon which we will be judged: whether we have fed the
hungry and given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and clothed the
naked, or spent time with the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-45).
Moreover, we will be asked if we have helped others to escape the doubt that
causes them to fall into despair and which is often a source of loneliness; if
we have helped to overcome the ignorance in which millions of people live,
especially children deprived of the necessary means to free them from the bonds
of poverty; if we have been close to the lonely and afflicted; if we have
forgiven those who have offended us and have rejected all forms of anger and
hate that lead to violence; if we have had the kind of patience God shows, who
is so patient with us; and if we have commended our brothers and sisters to the
Lord in prayer. In each of these “little ones,” Christ himself is present. His
flesh becomes visible in the flesh of the tortured, the crushed, the scourged,
the malnourished, and the exiled… to be acknowledged, touched, and cared for by
us. Let us not forget the words of Saint John of the Cross: “as we prepare to
leave this life, we will be judged on the basis of love”.[12]
16. In the Gospel of Luke, we find another
important element that will help us live the Jubilee with faith. Luke writes
that Jesus, on the Sabbath, went back to Nazareth and, as was his custom,
entered the synagogue. They called upon him to read the Scripture and to
comment on it. The passage was from the Book of Isaiah where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to
bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to those in
captivity; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Is 61:1-2). A “year of the
Lord’s favour” or “mercy”: this is what the Lord proclaimed and this is what we
wish to live now. This Holy Year will bring to the fore the richness of Jesus’
mission echoed in the words of the prophet: to bring a word and gesture of
consolation to the poor, to proclaim liberty to those bound by new forms of
slavery in modern society, to restore sight to those who can see no more
because they are caught up in themselves, to restore dignity to all those from
whom it has been robbed. The preaching of Jesus is made visible once more in
the response of faith which Christians are called to offer by their witness.
May the words of the Apostle accompany us: he who does acts of mercy, let him
do them with cheerfulness (cf. Rom 12:8).
17. The season of Lent during this Jubilee Year
should also be lived more intensely as a privileged moment to celebrate and
experience God’s mercy. How many pages of Sacred Scripture are appropriate for
meditation during the weeks of Lent to help us rediscover the merciful face of
the Father! We can repeat the words of the prophet Micah and make them our own:
You, O Lord, are a God who takes away iniquity and pardons sin, who does not
hold your anger forever, but are pleased to show mercy. You, Lord, will return
to us and have pity on your people. You will trample down our sins and toss
them into the depths of the sea (cf. 7:18-19).
The pages of the prophet Isaiah can also be meditated upon
concretely during this season of prayer, fasting, and works of charity: “Is not
this the fast that I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the
thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is
it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into
your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from
your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your
healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the
glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord
will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, here I am. If you take away from
the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the
afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the
noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with
good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered
garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (58:6-11).
The initiative of “24 Hours for the Lord,” to be celebrated
on the Friday and Saturday preceding the Fourth Week of Lent, should be
implemented in every diocese. So many people, including young people, are
returning to the Sacrament of Reconciliation; through this experience they are
rediscovering a path back to the Lord, living a moment of intense prayer and
finding meaning in their lives. Let us place the Sacrament of Reconciliation at
the centre once more in such a way that it will enable people to touch the
grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands. For every penitent, it will be a
source of true interior peace.
I will never tire of insisting that confessors be authentic
signs of the Father’s mercy. We do not become good confessors automatically. We
become good confessors when, above all, we allow ourselves to be penitents in
search of his mercy. Let us never forget that to be confessors means to
participate in the very mission of Jesus to be a concrete sign of the constancy
of divine love that pardons and saves. We priests have received the gift of the
Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins, and we are responsible for this. None
of us wields power over this Sacrament; rather, we are faithful servants of
God’s mercy through it. Every confessor must accept the faithful as the father
in the parable of the prodigal son: a father who runs out to meet his son
despite the fact that he has squandered away his inheritance. Confessors are
called to embrace the repentant son who comes back home and to express the joy
of having him back again. Let us never tire of also going out to the other son
who stands outside, incapable of rejoicing, in order to explain to him that his
judgement is severe and unjust and meaningless in light of the father’s
boundless mercy. May confessors not ask useless questions, but like the father
in the parable, interrupt the speech prepared ahead of time by the prodigal
son, so that confessors will learn to accept the plea for help and mercy
pouring from the heart of every penitent. In short, confessors are called to be
a sign of the primacy of mercy always, everywhere, and in every situation, no
matter what.
18. During Lent of this Holy Year, I intend to
send out Missionaries of Mercy. They will be a sign of the Church’s maternal
solicitude for the People of God, enabling them to enter the profound richness
of this mystery so fundamental to the faith. There will be priests to whom I
will grant the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See, so
that the breadth of their mandate as confessors will be even clearer. They will
be, above all, living signs of the Father’s readiness to welcome those in
search of his pardon. They will be missionaries of mercy because they will be
facilitators of a truly human encounter, a source of liberation, rich with
responsibility for overcoming obstacles and taking up the new life of Baptism
again. They will be led in their mission by the words of the Apostle: “For God
has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all” (Rom
11:32). Everyone, in fact, without exception, is called to embrace the call to
mercy. May these Missionaries live this call with the assurance that they can
fix their eyes on Jesus, “the merciful and faithful high priest in the service
of God” (Heb 2:17).
I ask my brother Bishops to invite and welcome these
Missionaries so that they can be, above all, persuasive preachers of mercy. May
individual dioceses organize “missions to the people” in such a way that these
Missionaries may be heralds of joy and forgiveness. Bishops are asked to
celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation with their people so that the time of
grace made possible by the Jubilee year makes it possible for many of God’s
sons and daughters to take up once again the journey to the Father’s house. May
pastors, especially during the liturgical season of Lent, be diligent in
calling back the faithful “to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy
and find grace” (Heb 4:16).
19. May the message of mercy reach everyone, and
may no one be indifferent to the call to experience mercy. I direct this
invitation to conversion even more fervently to those whose behaviour distances
them from the grace of God. I particularly have in mind men and women belonging
to criminal organizations of any kind. For their own good, I beg them to change
their lives. I ask them this in the name of the Son of God who, though
rejecting sin, never rejected the sinner. Do not fall into the terrible trap of
thinking that life depends on money and that, in comparison with money,
anything else is devoid of value or dignity. This is nothing but an illusion!
We cannot take money with us into the life beyond. Money does not bring us
happiness. Violence inflicted for the sake of amassing riches soaked in blood
makes one neither powerful nor immortal. Everyone, sooner or later, will be
subject to God’s judgment, from which no one can escape.
The same invitation is extended to those who either
perpetrate or participate in corruption. This festering wound is a grave sin
that cries out to heaven for vengeance, because it threatens the very
foundations of personal and social life. Corruption prevents us from looking to
the future with hope, because its tyrannical greed shatters the plans of the
weak and tramples upon the poorest of the poor. It is an evil that embeds
itself into the actions of everyday life and spreads, causing great public
scandal. Corruption is a sinful hardening of the heart that replaces God with
the illusion that money is a form of power. It is a work of darkness, fed by
suspicion and intrigue. Corruptio optimi pessima, saint Gregory the Great said
with good reason, affirming that no one can think himself immune from this
temptation. If we want to drive it out from personal and social life, we need
prudence, vigilance, loyalty, transparency, together with the courage to
denounce any wrongdoing. If it is not combated openly, sooner or later everyone
will become an accomplice to it, and it will end up destroying our very
existence.
This is the opportune moment to change our lives! This is
the time to allow our hearts to be touched! When faced with evil deeds, even in
the face of serious crimes, it is the time to listen to the cry of innocent
people who are deprived of their property, their dignity, their feelings, and
even their very lives. To stick to the way of evil will only leave one deluded
and sad. True life is something entirely different. God never tires of reaching
out to us. He is always ready to listen, as I am too, along with my brother
bishops and priests. All one needs to do is to accept the invitation to
conversion and submit oneself to justice during this special time of mercy
offered by the Church.
20. It would not be out of place at this point
to recall the relationship between justice and mercy. These are not two
contradictory realities, but two dimensions of a single reality that unfolds
progressively until it culminates in the fullness of love. Justice is a
fundamental concept for civil society, which is meant to be governed by the
rule of law. Justice is also understood as that which is rightly due to each
individual. In the Bible, there are many references to divine justice and to
God as “judge”. In these passages, justice is understood as the full observance
of the Law and the behaviour of every good Israelite in conformity with God’s
commandments. Such a vision, however, has not infrequently led to legalism by
distorting the original meaning of justice and obscuring its profound value. To
overcome this legalistic perspective, we need to recall that in Sacred
Scripture, justice is conceived essentially as the faithful abandonment of
oneself to God’s will.
For his part, Jesus speaks several times of the importance
of faith over and above the observance of the law. It is in this sense that we
must understand his words when, reclining at table with Matthew and other tax
collectors and sinners, he says to the Pharisees raising objections to him, “Go
and learn the meaning of ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’. I have come not to
call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:13). Faced with a vision of justice as
the mere observance of the law that judges people simply by dividing them into
two groups – the just and sinners – Jesus is bent on revealing the great gift
of mercy that searches out sinners and offers them pardon and salvation. One
can see why, on the basis of such a liberating vision of mercy as a source of
new life, Jesus was rejected by the Pharisees and the other teachers of the
law. In an attempt to remain faithful to the law, they merely placed burdens on
the shoulders of others and undermined the Father’s mercy. The appeal to a
faithful observance of the law must not prevent attention from being given to
matters that touch upon the dignity of the person.
The appeal Jesus makes to the text from the book of the
prophet Hosea – “I desire love and not sacrifice” (6:6) – is important in this
regard. Jesus affirms that, from that time onward, the rule of life for his
disciples must place mercy at the centre, as Jesus himself demonstrated by
sharing meals with sinners. Mercy, once again, is revealed as a fundamental
aspect of Jesus’ mission. This is truly challenging to his hearers, who would
draw the line at a formal respect for the law. Jesus, on the other hand, goes
beyond the law; the company he keeps with those the law considers sinners makes
us realize the depth of his mercy.
The Apostle Paul makes a similar journey. Prior to meeting
Jesus on the road to Damascus, he dedicated his life to pursuing the justice of
the law with zeal (cf. Phil 3:6). His conversion to Christ led him to turn that
vision upside down, to the point that he would write to the Galatians: “We have
believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not
by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified”
(2:16).
Paul’s understanding of
justice changes radically. He now places faith first, not justice. Salvation
comes not through the observance of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ,
who in his death and resurrection brings salvation together with a mercy that
justifies. God’s justice now becomes the liberating force for those oppressed
by slavery to sin and its consequences. God’s justice is his mercy (cf. Ps
51:11-16).
21. Mercy is not opposed to justice but rather
expresses God’s way of reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to
look at himself, convert, and believe. The experience of the prophet Hosea can
help us see the way in which mercy surpasses justice. The era in which the
prophet lived was one of the most dramatic in the history of the Jewish people.
The kingdom was tottering on the edge of destruction; the people had not
remained faithful to the covenant; they had wandered from God and lost the
faith of their forefathers. According to human logic, it seems reasonable for
God to think of rejecting an unfaithful people; they had not observed their
pact with God and therefore deserved just punishment: in other words, exile.
The prophet’s words attest to this: “They shall not return to the land of
Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to
me” (Hos11:5). And yet, after this invocation of justice, the prophet radically
changes his speech and reveals the true face of God: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim!
How can I hand you over, O Israel! How can I make you like Admah! How can I
treat you like Zeboiim! My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm
and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to
destroy” (11:8-9). Saint Augustine, almost as if he were commenting on these
words of the prophet, says: “It is easier for God to hold back anger than mercy”.[13]And
so it is. God’s anger lasts but a moment, his mercy forever.
If God limited himself to only justice, he would cease to
be God, and would instead be like human beings who ask merely that the law be
respected. But mere justice is not enough. Experience shows that an appeal to
justice alone will result in its destruction. This is why God goes beyond
justice with his mercy and forgiveness. Yet this does not mean that justice
should be devalued or rendered superfluous. On the contrary: anyone who makes a
mistake must pay the price. However, this is just the beginning of conversion,
not its end, because one begins to feel the tenderness and mercy of God. God
does not deny justice. He rather envelopes it and surpasses it with an even
greater event in which we experience love as the foundation of true justice. We
must pay close attention to what Saint Paul says if we want to avoid making the
same mistake for which he reproaches the Jews of his time: “For, being ignorant
of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own,
they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law,
that every one who has faith may be justified” (Rom 10:3-4). God’s justice is
his mercy given to everyone as a grace that flows from the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus the Cross of Christ is God’s judgement on
all of us and on the whole world, because through it he offers us the certitude
of love and new life.
22. A Jubilee also entails the granting of
indulgences. This practice will acquire an even more important meaning in the
Holy Year of Mercy. God’s forgiveness knows no bounds. In the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, God makes even more evident his love and its
power to destroy all human sin. Reconciliation with God is made possible
through the paschal mystery and the mediation of the Church. Thus God is always
ready to forgive, and he never tires of forgiving in ways that are continually
new and surprising. Nevertheless, all of us know well the experience of sin. We
know that we are called to perfection (cf. Mt 5:48), yet we feel the heavy
burden of sin. Though we feel the transforming power of grace, we also feel the
effects of sin typical of our fallen state. Despite being forgiven, the
conflicting consequences of our sins remain. In the Sacrament of
Reconciliation, God forgives our sins, which he truly blots out; and yet sin
leaves a negative effect on the way we think and act. But the mercy of God is
stronger even than this. It becomes indulgence on the part of the Father who,
through the Bride of Christ, his Church, reaches the pardoned sinner and frees
him from every residue left by the consequences of sin, enabling him to act
with charity, to grow in love rather than to fall back into sin.
The Church lives within
the communion of the saints. In the Eucharist, this communion, which is a gift
from God, becomes a spiritual union binding us to the saints and blessed ones
whose number is beyond counting (cf. Rev 7:4). Their holiness comes to the aid
of our weakness in a way that enables the Church, with her maternal prayers and
her way of life, to fortify the weakness of some with the strength of others.
Hence, to live the indulgence of the Holy Year means to approach the Father’s
mercy with the certainty that his forgiveness extends to the entire life of the
believer. To gain an indulgence is to experience the holiness of the Church,
who bestows upon all the fruits of Christ’s redemption, so that God’s love and
forgiveness may extend everywhere. Let us live this Jubilee intensely, begging
the Father to forgive our sins and to bathe us in his merciful “indulgence.”
23. There is an aspect of mercy that goes beyond
the confines of the Church. It relates us to Judaism and Islam, both of which
consider mercy to be one of God’s most important attributes. Israel was the
first to receive this revelation which continues in history as the source of an
inexhaustible richness meant to be
shared with all mankind. As we have seen, the pages of the Old Testament are
steeped in mercy, because they narrate the works that the Lord performed in
favour of his people at the most trying moments of their history. Among the
privileged names that Islam attributes to the Creator are “Merciful and Kind”.
This invocation is often on the lips of faithful Muslims who feel themselves
accompanied and sustained by mercy in their daily weakness. They too believe
that no one can place a limit on divine mercy because its doors are always
open.
I trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God
will foster an encounter with these religions and with other noble religious
traditions; may it open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know
and understand one another better; may it eliminate every form of
closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and
discrimination.
24. My thoughts now turn to the Mother of Mercy.
May the sweetness of her countenance watch over us in this Holy Year, so that
all of us may rediscover the joy of God’s tenderness. No one has penetrated the
profound mystery of the incarnation like Mary. Her entire life was patterned
after the presence of mercy made flesh. The Mother of the Crucified and Risen
One has entered the sanctuary of divine mercy because she participated
intimately in the mystery of His love.
Chosen to be the Mother of the Son of God, Mary, from the
outset, was prepared by the love of God to be the Ark of the Covenant between
God and man. She treasured divine mercy in her heart in perfect harmony with
her Son Jesus. Her hymn of praise, sung at the threshold of the home of
Elizabeth, was dedicated to the mercy of God which extends from “generation to
generation” (Lk 1:50). We too were included in those prophetic words of the
Virgin Mary. This will be a source of comfort and strength to us as we cross
the threshold of the Holy Year to experience the fruits of divine mercy.
At the foot of the Cross, Mary, together with John, the
disciple of love, witnessed the words of forgiveness spoken by Jesus. This
supreme expression of mercy towards those who crucified him show us the point
to which the mercy of God can reach. Mary attests that the mercy of the Son of
God knows no bounds and extends to everyone, without exception. Let us address
her in the words of the Salve Regina, a prayer ever ancient and ever new, so
that she may never tire of turning her merciful eyes upon us, and make us
worthy to contemplate the face of mercy, her Son Jesus.
Our prayer also extends to the saints and blessed ones who
made divine mercy their mission in life. I think especially of the great
apostle of mercy, Saint Faustina Kowalska. May she, who was called to enter the
depths of divine mercy, intercede for us and obtain for us the grace of living
and walking always according to the mercy of God and with an unwavering trust
in his love.
25. I present, therefore, this Extraordinary
Jubilee Year dedicated to living out in our daily lives the mercy which the
Father constantly extends to all of us. In this Jubilee Year, let us allow God
to surprise us. He never tires of casting open the doors of his heart and of
repeating that he loves us and wants to share his love with us. The Church
feels the urgent need to proclaim God’s mercy. Her life is authentic and
credible only when she becomes a convincing herald of mercy. She knows that her
primary task, especially at a moment full of great hopes and signs of
contradiction, is to introduce everyone to the great mystery of God’s mercy by
contemplating the face of Christ. The Church is called above all to be a
credible witness to mercy, professing it and living it as the core of the
revelation of Jesus Christ. From the heart of the Trinity, from the depths of
the mystery of God, the great river of mercy wells up and overflows
unceasingly. It is a spring that will never run dry, no matter how many people
draw from it. Every time someone is in need, he or she can approach it, because
the mercy of God never ends. The profundity of the mystery surrounding it is as
inexhaustible as the richness which springs up from it.
In this Jubilee Year, may the Church echo the word of God
that resounds strong and clear as a message and a sign of pardon, strength,
aid, and love. May she never tire of extending mercy, and be ever patient in
offering compassion and comfort. May the Church become the voice of every man
and woman, and repeat confidently without end: “Be mindful of your mercy, O
Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old” (Ps 25:6).
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 11 April, the Vigil of
the Second Sunday of Easter, or the Sunday of Divine Mercy, in the year of our
Lord 2015, the third of my Pontificate.
FRANCISCUS
[1] Cf. Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 4.
[2] Opening Address of
the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, 11 October 1962,
2-3.
[3] Speech at the Final
Public Session of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, 7 December 1965.
[4] Cf. Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 16:
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 15.
[5] Saint Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 30. a. 4.
[6] XXVI Sunday in
Ordinary Time. This Collect already appears in the eighth century among the euchological
texts of the Gelasian Sacramentary (1198).
[7] Cf. Homily 22: CCL,
122, 149-151.
[8] Apostolic Exhortation
Evangelii Gaudium, 24.
[9] No. 2.
[10] Saint John Paul II,
Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 15.
[11] Ibid., 13.
[12] Words of Light and
Love, 57.
[13] Homilies on the
Psalms, 76, 11.
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