Last Sunday Pope Francis issued the apostolic letter ‘Mercy and Misery’ (Meseridordia et Misera) on the fruits of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy that has come to an end. Misericordia et misera is a phrase used by St Augustine in recounting the story of Jesus’ meeting with the woman caught commiting adultery.
The following are extracts from the letter.
Encounter of sinner and Saviour
“A woman and Jesus meet. She is an adulteress and, in the eyes of the law, liable to be stoned. Jesus, through his preaching and the total gift of himself that would lead him to the Cross, returned the Mosaic Law to its true and original intent. Here, what is central is not the law or legal justice, but the love of God, which is capable of looking into the heart of each person and seeing the deepest desire hidden there; God’s love must take primacy over all else. This Gospel account, however, is not an encounter of sin and judgment in the abstract, but of a sinner and her Saviour.”
Love and forgiveness
“Forgiveness is the most visible sign of the Father’s love, which Jesus sought to reveal by his entire life. Every page of the Gospel is marked by this imperative of a love that loves to the point of forgiveness. Even at the last moment of his earthly life, as he was being nailed to the cross, Jesus spoke words of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).
“Nothing of what a repentant sinner places before God’s mercy can be excluded from the embrace of his forgiveness. For this reason, none of us has the right to make forgiveness conditional. Mercy is always a gratuitous act of our heavenly Father, an unconditional and unmerited act of love.
Celebrating mercy
“We are called to celebrate mercy. What great richness is present in the Church’s prayer when she invokes God as the Father of mercies! In the liturgy, mercy is not only repeatedly implored, but is truly received and experienced.
“From the beginning to the end of the Eucharistic celebration, mercy constantly appears in the dialogue between the assembly at prayer and the heart of the Father, who rejoices to bestow His merciful love.
“After first pleading for forgiveness with the invocation “Lord have mercy”, we are immediately reassured: “May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and lead us to everlasting life”.
Communicating God’s love
“I strongly encourage that great care be given to prepare the homily and to preaching in general. A priest’s preaching will be fruitful to the extent that he himself has experienced the merciful goodness of the Lord. Communicating the certainty that God loves us is not an exercise in rhetoric, but a condition for the credibility of one’s priesthood.
“The personal experience of mercy is the best way to make it a true message of consolation and conversion in pastoral ministry. Both homiletics and catechesis need to be sustained by this pulsing heart of the Christian life.”
Marriage and mercy
“The grace of the sacrament of marriage not only strengthens the family to be a privileged place for practising mercy, but also commits the Christian community and all its pastoral activity to uphold the great positive value of the family.
“This Jubilee Year cannot overlook the complexity of the current realities of family life. The experience of mercy enables us to regard all human problems from the standpoint of God’s love, which never tires of welcoming and accompanying.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)