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8th July 2024
TuesdayReflection
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POPE FRANCIS offers
'Saint Peter's Square 2016'
'Merciful like the Father"
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We have heard the passage from the Gospel of Luke (6:36-38)
that inspired the motto of this extraordinary Holy Year:
Merciful like the Father.
The complete phrase reads: "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful".
It is not a catchphrase, but a life commitment.
To understand this expression well, we can compare it with the parallel text from the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus says:
"You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect".
In the well-known Sermon on the Mount, which opens with the Beatitudes, the Lord teaches that perfection lies in love, the fulfillment of all the precepts of the Law.
In this same perspective, St Luke specifies that perfection is merciful love:
to be perfect means to be merciful.
Is a person who is not merciful perfect? No!
Is a person who is not merciful good? No!
Goodness and perfection are rooted in mercy.
Certainly, God is perfect.
However, if we consider Him in this way, it becomes impossible for men to aim towards that absolute perfection.
Instead, having Him before our eyes as merciful, allows us to better understand what constitutes his perfection, and this spurs us to be, as He is, full of love, compassion, mercy.
We ask ourselves: What does it mean for disciples to be merciful?
Jesus explains this with two verbs: "forgive"
(Lk 6:37) and "give" (v. 38).
Mercy is expressed, first of all, in forgiveness:
"Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven" (v. 37).
The Christian must forgive!
Why? Because he has been forgiven.
All of us who are here today, we have been forgiven.
There is not one of us who, in our own life, has had no need of God's forgiveness.
And because we have been forgiven, we must forgive.
We recite this every day in the Our Father:
"Forgive us our sins; forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".
That is, to forgive offences, to forgive many things, because we have been forgiven of many offences, of many sins.
In this way it is easy to forgive:
if God has forgiven me, why do I not forgive others?
Am I greater than God?
This pillar of forgiveness shows us the gratuitousness of the love of God, who loved us first.
Judging and condemning a brother who sins is wrong.
Not because we do not want to recognize sin, but because condemning the sinner breaks the bond of fraternity with him and spurns the mercy of God, who does not want to renounce any of his children.
We do not have the power to condemn our erring brother, we are not above him:
rather, we have a duty to recover the dignity of a child of the Father and to accompany him on his journey of conversion.
Forgiveness is the first pillar; giving is the second pillar.
"Give, and it will be given to you.... For the measure you give will be the measure you get back" (v. 38).
Jesus does not say what will happen to those who do not give, but the image of the "measure" is a warning:
with the measure that we give, it is we who determine how we will be judged, how we will be loved.
If we look closely, there is a coherent logic:
the extent to which you receive from God, you give to your brother, and the extent to which you give to your brother, you will receive from God!
Merciful love is therefore the only way forward.
This love enables Jesus' disciples to never lose the identity they received from Him, and to recognize themselves as children of the same Father.
In the love that they practice in life we see reflected that Mercy that will never end.
Do not forget this: mercy is a gift; forgiveness and giving.
In this way, the heart expands, it grows with love.
While selfishness and anger make the heart small, they make it harden like a stone.
Which do you prefer?
A heart of stone or a heart full of love?
If you prefer a heart full of love, be merciful!
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This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
'POPE FRANCIS'
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