The second
element [of conversion is] abiding in love. The love of Jesus Christ lasts
forever, it has no end because it is the very life of God. This love conquers
sin and gives the strength to rise and begin again, for through forgiveness the
heart is renewed and rejuvenated.
We all know
it: our Father never tires of loving and his eyes never grow weary of watching
the road to his home to see if the son who left and was lost is returning. We
can speak of God’s hope: our Father expects us always, he doesn’t just leave
the door open to us, but he awaits us. He is engaged in the waiting for his
children.
And this
Father also does not tire of loving the other son who, though staying at home
with him the whole time, does not share in his mercy, in his compassion. God is
not only at the origin of love, but in Jesus Christ he calls us to imitate his
own way of loving: “as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn
13:34).
To the extent
to which Christians live this love, they become credible disciples of Christ to
the world. Love cannot bear being locked up in itself. By its nature it is
open, it spreads and bears fruit, it always kindles new love.
Dear brothers
and sisters, after this celebration, many of you will be made missionaries to
offer to others the experience of reconciliation with God. “24 hours for the
Lord” is an initiative to which many dioceses have adhered in every part of the
world.
To the many
you will meet, you can communicate the joy of receiving the forgiveness of the
Father and of rediscovering full friendship with him. And you will tell them
that our Father expects us, our Father forgives us, and furthermore that he
rejoices. If you go to him with your whole life, even with the many sins,
instead of reproaching you, he will rejoice: this is our Father. This you must
say, say it to many people, today.
Whoever
experiences divine mercy, is impelled to be an architect of mercy among the
least and the poor. In these “littlest brothers” Jesus awaits us (cf. Mt
25:40); let us receive mercy and let us give mercy! Let us go to the encounter
and let us celebrate Easter in the joy of God!
Pope
Francis, Penance Service, March 28, 2014
Reflection
– This is lovely,
vintage Pope Francis in style and content—that is, simple, clear, missionary,
merciful. I was talking with friends recently about various matters in church
and society, and we touched upon the fact that the word ‘sin’ is four-letter
word, so to speak, to many people today. Even in the Church (where according to
the stereotype of Catholicism that’s all we ever talk about), you really don’t
hear it mentioned too much at all, not in most places.
While there may be many reasons for that
fact, I think the primary one, the one that lies underneath it all, is that it
is still and largely very difficult for us to really believe in the mercy of
God. Just how tender and compassionate and merciful and kind our God is to
us—this eludes us.
And because it eludes us, I believe, to
frankly and freely say “I’m a sinner! We’re all sinners! You’re a sinner too!”
is unacceptable. If God is not merciful, then my being a sinner, your being a
sinner, will destroy us. When we really behold our sins, our frank refusals to
love, our deliberate disobeying or ignoring of the moral law in this or that
particular—well, if there isn’t mercy waiting for us in the Father, then we’d
best be despairing.
And so we just don’t use that word. We
dress it up in a thousand disguises and equivocations and euphemisms. We make
excuses, we rationalize, and desperately cling to whatever latest edited
version of the moral law we chance upon, that let’s us off the sin hook. We
dance around, contort ourselves and reality—anything other than say, simply,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to
be called your child.”
But He is merciful, you know. And so we don’t have to do all that
nonsense. And it is so beautiful, so unutterably, gloriously beautiful, to
simply know oneself as a sinner held in the bountiful mercy of God. So much
better than the tiresome and frankly tiring effort to self-justify, to
constantly wriggle off the hook, and of course to put someone else on that hook
in our place (I’m not a sinner, but YOU ARE!).
So I want to go on record: I, Fr. Denis
Raymond Lemieux, am a sinner. I have sinned. May God have mercy on me, as I
pray He has mercy on us all. And may we all come to know the joy and freedom
that comes only from living in the mercy of God.
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