God’s Mercy? Don’t Leave Advent Without It by Kathryn Jean Lopez Shortly after I got off the plane in Rome this April for the canonization Mass for Sts. John XXIII and John Paul II, I was in a gift shop when I encountered a curious display of peculiar little boxes. It looked like some kind of prescription for heart medication, complete with a drawing of a human heart on the box. Does everyone in Rome have a heart condition? I wondered. And since when has it been this easy to get relief? (I’ve had a hard time finding something close to a working Band-Aid in Rome.) Does everyone have heartache? Silly questions, of course. Who doesn’t? These little prescription boxes had on them what has to be one of the best words known to men: Misericordia. Even with my little Italian, I know that one. How many times did Pope John Paul II of my youth say it? How beautifully he wrote about it in his encyclical on mercy, Dives in Misericordia: The Church must consider it one of her principal duties — at every stage of history and especially in our modern age — to proclaim and to introduce into life the mystery of mercy, supremely revealed in Jesus Christ. The “pills” inside these little boxes I kept seeing, as it turns out, are not for ingestion so much for transformation. They are the beads of a rosary. Pope Francis had indeed prescribed this remedy: the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The box even includes instructions for those not familiar with one or the other. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Wrapping up an Angelus message last November, the pope had said: Now I would like to recommend a medicine to you. Some of you may be wondering: “Is the Pope a pharmacist now?” It is a special medicine which will help you to benefit from the Year of Faith, as it soon will come to an end. It is a medicine that consists of 59 threaded beads; a “spiritual medicine”… A small box containing 59 beads on a string. This little box contains the medicine and will be distributed to you by volunteers as you leave the Square. Take them! There is a rosary, with which you can pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, spiritual help for our souls and for spreading love, forgiveness and brotherhood everywhere. Do not forget to take it, because it is good for you. It is good for the heart, the soul, and for life in general! Now, of course, these little boxes are sold at every tourist trap around Rome. Prince William and Kate Middleton may be capturing all the feel-good media attention this month as they flew a commercial airline for a visit to the United States this past week, but you don’t get that much more popular than Pope Francis. A new Pew Research Center survey has even confirmed his popularity in countries throughout the world. If we all like him so much, then it’s about time we listen to him. And here’s a place to start: Mercy. Pope Francis has had so much to say about mercy. Since the very first days of Pope Francis’s pontificate, he has been begging us to go to encounter God’s mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation – in “confession.” I hope I never forget standing in St. Peter’s Square during his first Angelus address. That Sunday noontime he pleaded: God never ever tires of forgiving us! … the problem is that we ourselves tire, we do not want to ask, we grow weary of asking for forgiveness. He never tires of forgiving, but at times we get tired of asking for forgiveness. Let us never tire, let us never tire! He is the loving Father who always pardons, who has that heart of mercy for us all. And let us too learn to be merciful to everyone. He added: “Let us invoke the intercession of Our Lady, who held in her arms the Mercy of God made man.” And therein steps the Rosary. Keep close to her and she will bring us ever closer to her Son, who heals and strengthens, who works miracles. Even in us. And it’s been a continuing theme. In June this year, Pope Francis explained in an address: “Misericordia” [mercy], [is] a Latin word whose etymological meaning is “miseris cor dare,” to “give the heart to the wretched,” those in need, those who are suffering. That is what Jesus did: he opened his heart to the wretchedness of man. The Gospel has a wealth of episodes which present the misericordia of Jesus, his love freely given for the suffering and the weak. From the Gospel narratives we are able to understand the closeness, the goodness, the tenderness with which Jesus drew in the suffering people and consoled them, comforted them, and often healed them. By our Teacher’s example, we too are called to draw near, to share the conditions of the people we meet. It is necessary that our words, our actions, our attitudes express solidarity, the will to not remain alien to the pain of others, and do this with fraternal warmth and without falling into some form of paternalism. … Let us imitate Jesus: He goes to the streets, not planning for the poor or the sick or disabled people that he crosses along the way; but with the first one he encounters, he stops, becoming a presence of care, a sign of the closeness of God who is goodness, providence and love. Remembering always that it is in encounter with Christ and his sacramental mercy that we can do this with His Heart, overwhelmed by the will of God in our lives and the lives of those we encounter along our way in discerning His call for us daily. Misericordia is integral to any plan for saving the family, as the pope also stressed: “Please, thank you, sorry. Three essential words.” How’s that for a Christmas gift! Just three essential words? Just! (Ha!) Yet these are big words: They could transform out lives and bring peace to mankind, one home at a time. In an address on families in Oct. 2013, Pope Francis continued: We say please so as not to be forceful in family life: “May I please do this? Would you be happy if I did this?” We do this with a language that seeks agreement. We say thank you, thank you for love! But be honest with me, how many times do you say thank you to your wife, and you to your husband? How many days go by without uttering this word, thanks! And the last word: sorry. We all make mistakes and on occasion someone gets offended in the marriage, in the family, and sometimes - I say - plates are smashed, harsh words are spoken but please listen to my advice: don’t ever let the sun set without reconciling. Peace is made each day in the family: “Please forgive me,” and then you start over. In June, shortly after his trip to the Holy Land, he said: When the Father beholds the wounds of Jesus he forgives us forever, not because we are good, but because Jesus paid for us. Beholding the wounds of Jesus, the Father becomes most merciful. This is the great work of Jesus today in Heaven: showing the Father the price of forgiveness, his wounds. This is the beauty that urges us not to be afraid to ask forgiveness; the Father always pardons, because he sees the wounds of Jesus, he sees our sin and he forgives it. And it’s an Advent and Christmas message. Last December, speaking in a Rome parish, Pope Francis said: To encounter Jesus also means allowing oneself to be gazed upon by him. “But, Father, you know,” one of you might say to me, “you know that this journey is horrible for me, I am such a sinner, I have committed many sins... how can I encounter Jesus?”. And you know that the people whom Jesus most sought out were the greatest sinners; and they reproached him for this, and the people — those who believed themselves righteous — would say: this is no true prophet, look what lovely company he keeps! He was with sinners... And he said: I came for those in need of salvation, in need of healing. Jesus heals our sins. And along the way Jesus comes and forgives us — all of us sinners, we are all sinners — even when we make a mistake, when we commit a sin, when we sin. And this forgiveness that we receive in Confession is an encounter with Jesus. We always encounter Jesus. So let us go forward in life like this, as the Prophet says, to the mountain, until the day when we shall attain the final encounter, when we will be able to look upon the beautiful gaze of Jesus, it is so beautiful. This is the Christian life: to walk, to go forward, united as brothers and sisters, loving one another. Encounter Jesus. Do you agree, the nine of you? Do you want to meet Jesus in your lives? Yes? This is important in the Christian life. Today, with the seal of the Holy Spirit, you will have greater strength for the journey, for the encounter with Jesus. Take courage, do not be afraid! Life is this journey. And the most beautiful gift is to meet Jesus. Go forward, be brave! Sacramental encounter with God is the most beautiful gift. It is ours to receive! And again this year, the pope recommended the same Advent encounter with Christ: “Let yourself be consoled.” Last January, the Holy Father said: In the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God there is also an aspect that is connected to human freedom, to the freedom of each one of us. Indeed, the Word of God pitched his tent among us, sinners who are in need of mercy. And we all must hasten to receive the grace that he offers us. Practically speaking, he said last year, be concrete and sincere in your sorrow for your sins in confession. This gives glory to God. You may recall how Pope Francis turned heads this past Lent by breaking protocol and surprising everyone by going to confession within the view of cameras and live television! No nuance there. Nothing gets lost in translation there. On Monday, doors will be open in churches throughout the Archdiocese of New York to encourage the faithful to go to confession. In what’s called Reconciliation Monday, priests will be available to offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. to anyone who wants renewal in God’s grace, an encounter with his merciful love. Many churches elsewhere also add confession times around this time of year. If you’re in an urban center, odds are there is a church around that offers regular confession times throughout the day and throughout the year. Make a habit of asking God for forgiveness. The world will not know the mercy of God unless it sees it! We cannot give it if we do not have it. Encounter his mercy. To paraphrase New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s message that is airing on local New York area radio stations this month: Don’t worry about how long it has been. Christ seeks to heal you. He aches to forgive you. We’ve got the prescription. It takes us right to the healing heart of the Savior of the world. What a peace plan for Christmas! Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez, klopez@nationalreview) is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large for National Review Online, and founding director of Catholic Voices USA (which is sponsoring the aforementioned radio message on mercy this month).
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 23:13:45 +0000
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