A great priest
from Buenos Aires comes to mind, he is younger than I, he is around the age of
72.... Once he came to see me. He is a great confessor: there are always people
waiting in line for him there. The majority of priests confess to him... He is
a great confessor.
And once he
came to see me: “But Father....”; “Tell me”; “I have a small scruple, because I
know that I forgive too much!”… And we spoke about mercy. At a certain point he
said to me: “You know, when I feel this scruple keenly, I go to the chapel,
before the Tabernacle, and I say to Him: Excuse me, but it’s Your fault,
because it is you who has given me the bad example! And I go away at
peace....”. It is a beautiful prayer of mercy! If one experiences this in his
own regard in Confession, in his own heart, he is able to give it to others.
The priest is
called to learn this, to have a heart that is moved. Priests who are — allow me
to say the word — “aseptic”, those “from the laboratory”, all clean and tidy,
do not help the Church.
Today we can
think of the Church as a “field hospital”. Excuse me but I repeat it, because
this is how I see it, how I feel it is: a “field hospital”. Wounds need to be
treated, so many wounds! So many wounds! There are so many people who are
wounded by material problems, by scandals, also in the Church.... People
wounded by the world’s illusions.... We priests must be there, close to these
people. Mercy first means treating the wounds.
When someone is wounded, he
needs this immediately, not tests such as the level of cholesterol and one’s
glycemic index.... But there’s a wound, treat the wound, and then we can look
at the results of the tests. Then specialized treatments can be done, but first
we need to treat the open wounds. I think this is what is most important at
this time. And there are also hidden wounds, because there are people who
distance themselves in order to avoid showing their wounds closer....
The custom
comes to mind, in the Mosaic Law, of the lepers in Jesus’ time, who were always
kept at a distance in order not to to spread the contagion.... There are people
who distance themselves through shame, through shame, so as not to let their
wounds be seen.... And perhaps they distance themselves with some bitterness against
the Church, but deep down inside there is a wound.... They want a caress! And
you, dear brothers — I ask you — do you know the wounds of your parishioners?
Do you perceive them? Are you close to them? It’s the only question....
Pope
Francis, Address to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, March 6, 2014
Reflection – Well this part of his address is so
beautiful that a) I couldn’t bear to cut any of it out and b) I really don’t
know what I have to add to it! Except that I believe Pope Francis is really
revealing his own heart here, the real core of his faith, his fundamental orientation
in life.
Everything else—economic policy and
liturgical style, curial reform and magisterial focus—all of this is not
nothing, not utterly unimportant, but very much secondary to this profound
sense of the wounds of humanity and the need for a merciful Church, a field
hospital Church, a Church that is first concerned to stanch the bleeding and
assuage the pain of people.
It is not—it never is and it never can be—a
question of abandoning this teaching or changing that doctrine. It is a matter
of deeply discerning the need of the person in front of you and what they can
or cannot hear at this precise point. Truth is truth and truth must be taught,
but always with love, always with a profound sensitivity to the level of pain
and brokenness of the person.
Thanks for sharing this. I have read a little of Catherine's works and I find that the pope shares with her the same tone of immanent simplicity of love. What is the pope saying but that we must refine our sense of duty so that we may meet the duty of each moment. Wounds first, cholesterol later. Peace
ReplyDeleteWell put - and a nice connection to Catherine, there. Yes, she has much the same style and approach - she would have loved Pope Francis!
DeleteThe Church is like a field hospital where the practitioners have little skill and no knowledge at all of aseptic technique. Most people are lost to poor treatment rather than the injury that caused them to seek help.
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