Misericordiae Vultus
BULL
OF INDICTION
OF THE EXTRAORDINARY
JUBILEE OF MERCY
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
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” (Ex 34:6), 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 a 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. 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 instills 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 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 honored, its
efforts approved, its aspirations purified and blessed … Another point we must
stress is this: all this rich teaching
is channeled 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 secures
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 through which he reveals
his love as 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
repeated 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 the face 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 Naim 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 seventy 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 as 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 behaviors 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. It 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 instills 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 behavior 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 one’s
self. 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 program 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 judgment, 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 judgment
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 and 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 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 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 the youth, 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 judgment 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 gushing 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 offered by the Jubilee Year will make 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 behavior
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
confronted 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 behavior 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” (Hos 11:5).
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 everyone 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 judgment
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 than even 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 favor 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 new, so that she may never tire of
turning her merciful eyes towards 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 am especially
thinking 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 throwing open the doors of his heart and repeats
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 approach 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 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.
[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.
[6]
XXVI Sunday in Ordinary Time. This Collect already appears in the eighth
century among the euchological texts of the Gelasian Sacramentary (1198).
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