GENERAL AUDIENCE: MERCY IS ESSENTIAL
Vatican City, 10 September 2014
(VIS) – A special aspect of the “maternity” of the Church is education through
mercy, and this was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis during this
Wednesday's general audience in St. Peter's Square.
Like a good mother and educator,
the Church focuses on the essential, and the essential, according to the
Gospel, is mercy, as Jesus clearly tells his disciples: “Be merciful, just as
your father is”. “Is it possible for a Christian not to be merciful?” asked
Pope Francis. “No. The Christian must necessarily be merciful, because this is
at the centre of the Gospel. And so the Church behaves like Jesus. She does not
give theoretical lessons on love or on mercy. She does not spread throughout
the world a philosophy or a path to wisdom. Certainly, Christianity is all of
this too”, the Pope remarked, “but as a consequence, a reflection. The mother
Church, like Jesus, teaches by example, and words serve to cast light on the
meaning of her gestures”.
Therefore, “the Mother Church teaches
us to give food and drink to those who hunger and thirst, and to clothe those
who are naked. And how does she do this? She does it through the example of
many saints who have done it in an exemplary fashion, but she also does it
through the example of many fathers and mothers, who teach their children that
what we have left over is for those who are in need of basic necessities. In
the most humble Christian families, the rule of hospitality is always sacred:
there is always a dish of food and a place to sleep for those in need”. And to
those who say they have nothing to spare, Francis gave the example of a family
in his former diocese who shared half of what they had to eat with a poor man
who knocked at their door. “Learning to share what we have is important”.
The mother Church teaches us to
be close to those who are sick. Like the saints who have served Jesus in this
way, there are many people who practise this work of mercy every day in
hospitals, rest homes, or in their own homes, providing assistance for the
sick.
The mother Church also teaches us
to be close to those who are imprisoned. “'But Father', some will say, 'This is
dangerous. These are bad people'. Listen carefully: any one of us is capable of
doing what these men and women in prison have done. We all sin and make
mistakes in life. They are not worse than you or me. Mercy overcomes any wall
or barrier, and leads us always to seek the face of the human being. And it is
mercy that changes hearts and lives, that is able to regenerate a person or
enable him to be newly reintegrated in society”.
“The mother Church teaches us to
be close to those who have been abandoned and who die lonely. This is what
Mother Teresa did in the streets of Calcutta and it is what many Christians,
those who are not afraid to take the hand of those who are about to leave this
world, have done and continue to do. And here too, mercy offers peace to those
who depart and to those who remain, making us aware that God is greater than
death, and that by staying with Him, even the final separation is only 'until
we meet again'”.
“The Church is a mother”, he
continued, “teaching her children the works of mercy. She has learned this path
from Jesus; she has learned that this is essential for salvation. It is not
enough to love those who love us. It is not enough to do good to those who do
good to us in return. To change the world for the better is it necessary to do
good to those who are not able to do the same for us, as our Father did for us,
in giving us Jesus. How much have we paid for our redemption? Nothing. It was
all free. Doing good without expecting anything in return – this is what our
Father did for us and what we too must do”. For this reason, he concluded, “let
us give thanks to the Lord, who has given us the grace of having the Church as
a mother who teaches us the way of mercy, the way of life”.
©
VIS, Vatican Infromation Service
