Pontiff calls all to be ‘mediators of mercy’ during jubilee
VATICAN CITY
(CNA/EWTN News)
Pope Francis renewed his appeal for faithful to put the works of mercy into practice during the jubilee, urging them to open their hearts to others, and to show God’s tenderness to those who suffer.
In his Jan. 27 general audience, the Pope said “divine mercy had saved” the biblical figure of Moses from death in the waters of the Nile as a newborn infant.
Later, Moses himself became “a mediator of that same mercy, allowing the people to be born to freedom” through their passage between the waters of the Red Sea.
“Also we, in this year of mercy, we can be mediators of mercy with the works of mercy: to grow close, to give relief, to create unity. It’s possible to do many good things.”
It was the Pope’s second set of reflections in a new series of catecheses dedicated to mercy according to the Bible, which he launched last week for the Jubilee of Mercy.
The Pope’s emphasis on performing both spiritual and corporal works of mercy also formed the heart of his Lenten message for 2016, published Jan. 26. His main point in the message was that those who receive God’s mercy will be able to give it to others.
In his general audience, Francis noted that, in the Bible, God was merciful with the people of Israel from the beginning, specifically in accompanying the patriarchs, such as Jacob and Abraham, and blessing them with children, despite their infertility.
He pointed to the story of Joseph and his brothers, the sons of Jacob, and lamented that, like them, many families today also have problems, including relatives who are distant and don’t speak to one another.
The Holy Year of Mercy, he said, “is a good occasion to come back, to embrace and forgive one another, and to forget the bad things.”
On the other hand, the Pope noted that even though God had been generous with the people of Israel, life in Egypt was difficult for them. But it was precisely when the Israelites were ready to give in “that the Lord intervened and brought salvation.”
“When the Israelites were suffering, they cried out to God. God heard their cry; God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” the Pope said.
“Mercy cannot remain indifferent before the suffering of the oppressed, the cry of those who are subjected to violence, reduced to slavery, condemned to death,” he continued.
This painful fact affects every age, including ours, and can make one feel powerless. The temptation can also arise to harden one’s heart to suffering and to “think about something else” instead, he said.
God, on the other hand, “is not indifferent; He never takes His eyes off human pain. The God of mercy responds and takes care of the poor, of those who cry out in their desperation.”
“God listens and intervenes in order to save, arousing men who are capable of hearing the groan of suffering and to work in favor of the oppressed,” the Pope said, recalling the figure of Moses.
Just as with Moses, who was God’s instrument in liberating the people of Israel, “the mercy of God always acts to save,” Pope Francis said, adding that this divine mercy “reaches everyone.”
The Lord offers each individual a special relationship of “personal, exclusive, and privileged love,” he said, explaining that humanity is like a special treasure for God, His “personal reserve of gold and silver.”
“The mercy of the Lord renders man precious, like a personal wealth that belongs to Him, that He cares for and in which He is welcomed,” he said.
We become this treasure, Francis observed, to the extent that we uphold His covenant with us, which has been “consummated” in the blood of Jesus, and to which we allow ourselves to be saved by Him.
Since we are children of God, we, like Moses, have the opportunity to receive the inheritance “of goodness and mercy toward others.”
“We (can) do acts of mercy, opening our hearts to reach everyone with the works of mercy, which are the merciful inheritance that God the Father has had with us.”
