In October the Synod of Bishops will resume their
discussions on family life – on how the Church can encourage a new appreciation
of its importance and on how to respond to the frequent instances of breakdown
in marriage. Undoubtedly the Holy Year
of Mercy and the Synod on Family Life are connected. How, exactly, will become clearer in the
coming months. But it certainly is a
significant time in the pontificate of Pope Francis and in the life of the
Church.
It is very clear that mercy is in the forefront of
the thinking of Pope Francis. He has
consistently emphasised the importance of mercy and called for a more merciful
Church. He wants a Church that is more
recognisably fashioned in the image of Christ – more tender, more open, more
loving, more forgiving, merciful. In his
Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, he uses the word mercy thirty-two
times. He emphasises that mercy involves
what the Church has traditionally called the corporal works of mercy. Inspired by the parable of the sheep and the
goats in Matthew’s Gospel (25: 31-46) we are reminded that what we do to the
‘least’ of our brothers and sisters is what we do – or fail to do – to Christ
himself. Francis says: ‘The Church must
be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven
and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel.’ (The Joy of the Gospel,
para 114). But his teaching is hardly
new. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church teaches that the Church promotes the mercy of God among human beings
(CCC 2040). The Church by its nature is
an instrument of God’s reconciling mercy.
Pope Francis, in the Joy of the Gospel, stresses
that we need to reach out to those most in need – the poor, the displaced, the
immigrants, the marginalised and the powerless (194; 252) he draws our attention to the huge and gap
between the haves and the have-nots. He
reminds us very strongly that mercy is ultimately a divine action. We are each one of us recipients of God’s
mercy. It is in God’s very nature to be
merciful. This is most clearly seen in
Jesus Christ his Son coming into our world and taking on our human nature for
our salvation. (285). Those who receive mercy from God are called to imitate the
God of mercy. Receiving mercy brings
with it a responsibility to share it with others.
Mercy is related to God’s justice. He is both merciful and just, kind and
demanding, forgiving and capable of judging.
The desire of Pope Francis to make the practice of the Church in
concrete situations more merciful has made some people nervous. Seeking to find new ways of addressing the
serious problem of divorce and remarriage seems to have alarmed some bishops
and Cardinals. Does being more merciful
mean that one becomes ‘soft on sin’?
Does it compromise the faith?
These are the kinds of questions that some pose when they hear talk of
mercy. Some are worried that it will
lead to a watered down Catholicism. But
Pope Francis has not proposed changing any doctrines. On the contrary he has emphasised Church’s
teaching on abortion and on traditional family structures. But his call for a more merciful, forgiving and
loving church surely echoes Jesus’ own
teachings in the Gospels. Jesus himself
was attacked for promoting mercy and forgiveness. Time and again we see Jesus being rounded on
by those who thought it their duty to defend the faith as they saw it. This was a major factor in Jesus being
rejected. How could such a person be the
Messiah?
The months ahead should be a time of special prayer
for the Church as it seeks to reflect on some of the great issues of how the
human family lives up to its obligations to look after one another especially
those most in need of even the basics of human survival, on how we take
seriously our responsibility for our environment and how we open our hearts to
those in fractured family situations.
