Although the Extraordinary Jubilee Year has concluded, we are still
living in a “time of mercy.”
That was the message of Pope Francis in a
lengthy Apostolic Letter, entitled Misericordia et misera, (“Mercy and
Misery”), issued on Monday following the close of the Year of Mercy.
The title refers to the encounter between Jesus and the woman caught
in adultery, from the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Saint John. In his
commentary on the Gospel, St Augustine said of that encounter, “The two
of them” – Jesus and the woman – “remained alone: mercy with misery.”
The teaching of this Gospel, the Pope said, “serves not only to throw
light on the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, but also
to point out the path that we are called to follow in the future.”
In light of the “great graces of mercy” we have received during the
Jubilee, our first response is to give thanks to the Lord for His gifts.
But in going forward, we must also continue to celebrate mercy,
especially in the liturgical celebrations of the Church, including in
the Sacrifice of the Mass, and in the other Sacraments, especially in
Reconciliation and in Anointing of the Sick, the two “sacraments of
healing.”
Pope Francis proposed a number of ideas to continue the celebration
of mercy, including an annual day dedicated to making the Scriptures
better known and more widely diffused. He also called on the faithful to
restore the Sacrament of Reconciliation to a “central place in
Christian life.”
The Holy Father also extended a number of initiatives already begun
in the Holy Year, asking the Missionaries of Mercy to continue their
ministry, and extending indefinitely the faculties of priests of the
Society of St Pius X to hear confessions and grant absolution. Pope
Francis also extended the faculties of all priests to absolve the sin of
procured abortion.
“I want to insist as firmly as I can that abortion
is a grave sin,” the Pope said, “because it puts an end to an innocent
life.” But, he continued, “I can and I must state that there is no sin
that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant
heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father.”
Though the Jubilee is closed, Pope Francis said, “the door of mercy
of our heart continues to remain wide open.” He called on the faithful
to continue to practice new works of mercy, and to find new ways to give
expression to the traditional works. The corporal and spiritual works
of mercy, he said, “continue in our own day to be proof of mercy’s
immense positive influence as a social value.” In this vein, the Pope
said the Church must continue to be vigilant and offer solidarity in the
face of attacks on human dignity.
“This is the time of mercy,” the Pope concluded. “It is the time of
mercy because no sinner can ever tire of asking forgiveness, and all can
feel the welcoming embrace of the Father.
As a final initiative for the future, Pope Francis asked the whole
Church to celebrate, on the second to last Sunday of the liturgical
year, the World Day of the Poor. This Day, he said, “will also represent
a genuine form of new evangelization (cf. Mt 11:5) which can renew the
face of the Church as she perseveres in her perennial activity of
pastoral conversion and witness to mercy.”
Read the full text of Pope Francis' Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera.