JUBILEE AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
St Peter's Square
Saturday, 12 November 2016
EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY
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| PHOTO: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO |
Mercy and inclusion
Dear brothers and sisters, Good morning!
In this last Saturday Jubilee
Audience, I would like to present an important aspect of mercy: inclusion.
Indeed, God, in his design of love, does not want to exclude anyone, but wants
to include everyone. For example, through Baptism, he makes us his children in
Christ, members of his Body which is the Church. And we Christians are invited
to use the same criteria: mercy is the way one acts, that style, with which we
try to include others in our lives, and avoid closing in on ourselves and our
selfish securities.
In the passage from the Gospel of
Matthew that we have just heard, Jesus addresses a truly universal invitation:
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”
(11:28). No one is excluded from this call, because Jesus’ mission is to reveal
the Father’s love to everyone. Our task is to open our hearts, to trust in
Jesus and accept this message of love, which makes us enter into the mystery of
salvation.
This aspect of mercy, inclusion, is
manifested in opening one’s arms wide to welcome, without excluding; without
labeling others according to their social status, language, race, culture or
religion: there is, before us, only a person to be loved as God loves them. The
person whom I find at my work, in my neighbourhood, is a person to love, as God
loves. “But he is from that country, or that other country, or of this
religion, or another... He
is a person whom God loves and I have to love him”. This
is to include, and this is inclusion.
We encounter so many weary and
oppressed people today! In the street, in public offices, in medical
practices... Jesus’ gaze rests on each one of those faces, even through our
eyes. And how is our heart? Is it merciful? And our way of thinking and acting,
is it inclusive? The Gospel calls us to recognize, in the history of humanity,
the design of a great work of inclusion, which fully respects the freedom of
every person, every community, every nation, and calls everyone to form a
family of brothers and sisters, in justice, solidarity and peace, and to be
part of the Church, which is the Body of Christ.
How true are Jesus’ words, which
invite those who are tired and weary to come to Him to find rest! His arms
outstretched on the cross show that no one is excluded from his love and his
mercy, not even the greatest sinner: no one! We are all included in his love and in
his mercy. The most immediate expression with which we feel welcomed and
included in him is that of forgiveness. We all need to be forgiven by God. And
we all need to encounter brothers and sisters who help us to go to Jesus, to
open ourselves to the gift he has given us on the cross. Let
us not hinder each other! Let us not exclude anyone! Rather, with humility and
simplicity let us become instruments of the Father’s inclusive mercy. The
inclusive mercy of the Father: it is like this. The Holy Mother Church prolongs
in the world the great embrace of Christ who died and rose. Also this Square,
with its colonnade, expresses this embrace. Let us engage in this movement of
including others, to be witnesses of the mercy with which God has accepted and
welcomed each one of us.
Special greetings:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims
and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from Ireland
and Pakistan. With prayerful good wishes that the present Jubilee of Mercy will
be a moment of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke
upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, live this
last Saturday Audience of the Jubilee with faith, in order to experience
forgiveness, mercy and the love of God in your life. I greet with particular
affection you volunteers of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. You have been
great! You all have come from different countries, and I thank you for the
valuable service you have provided so that pilgrims could live this experience
of faith well. Over the course of these months, I have noticed your discreet
presence in the Square with the Jubilee logo and have admired the dedication,
patience and enthusiasm with which you have carried out your work. Thank you
very much!
In particular, I extend a greeting to
young people, the sick and newlyweds. Yesterday we commemorated Saint Martin of
Tours, the patron saint of beggars, whose 17th centenary of the birth we
celebrate this year. May his example inspire in you, dear young people,
especially you Erasmus students in Europe, the desire to perform acts of
solidarity; may his faith in Christ the Lord sustain you, dear sick people, in
the trials of disease; and may his moral rectitude remind you, dear newlyweds,
of the importance of values in the education of children.
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Editrice Vaticana
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