Let Mercy Shine Outward and Joyfully

The Jubilee Year of Mercy is an unusual jubilee event. It is both a happy and disturbing. Jubilees are always celebration of joyful fellowship and marked by festivities. They are celebrations of gratitude and recognition of accomplishments and progress by a community or society. Unlike these jubilees, the Jubilee of Mercy is disturbing. It challenges us to think of our responsibility. It occurs at the worst possible times of social divide and unrest that both affect and afflict individuals and communities. The war of Syria, the terror of ISIS, the aftermath of stock market collapse in the West, the massive refugee movements in Mediterranean Europe, the tension among nations in the China sea—these are but some of the worrisome global events. What is there to celebrate about when in many of these crises, Christians are killed, persecuted and alienated?

The context may look gloomy and stark, but these are not the complete picture. The heroism of Malala Yousafzai, the peacemakers’ triumph of Tunisia, the victory of Aung San Kyu Yi in Myanmar and of course, the Paris Summit on Climate Change, the election of Pope Francis, remind us that in darkness there are flickers of light and they are growing in numbers and influence. There are still people whose resolve and dedication to help bring about hope and stir the heart to believe.

For Catholics, the Jubilee is a recognition of God’s abiding presence and fidelity, a message of hope and comfort to our broken, divisive world. More importantly, we look at the Jubilee as a period of gratitude of having encountered God who has shown us mercy through people who continue to mirror the goodness and kindness of the Almighty Creator. That’s a gift we are grateful for: God’s luminous messengers of mercy.

But Jubilee for Catholics is also a task that begins with the renewal of mind heart and spirit. We enter into it with the desire and intention of being part of the flickering light of the Divine. Therefore, we go back to our roots, the practices that shape the purpose and mission which is heralded by the Messiah, in life of Jesus Christ during his sojourn among us. Going back and learning from Jesus what can provide us both the direction and purpose in the present journey. What is that? What exactly are we revisiting?

Pope Francis, in Misericordiae Vultus (Face of Mercy), tells us that Jesus is the Face of God’s Mercy. It is a compelling metaphor of our understanding of God who reveals to us as a merciful and kind. In practically most accounts of divine encounter in the Bible, God manifests a Presence that “heals wounds and warms hearts”, Someone who reaches us when we are down and vulnerable and needy. In these visceral encounters, God is showing mercy and, in effect, impels those who experience mercy to do the same for others.

Jesus is the face of God’s mercy, the concrete manifestation of God’s presence, availability and service. Through Jesus and by the witness of his life, the lost, least and last find healing, hope and help. As his disciples encountered him they learned to do the same. Their ministries afterwards were embodiment of their Lord’s life in their lives. So too the Church, in the course of time, continues this pattern of experiential “spiritual” encounters, of finding God and in the process transforming them in their devotions, worship and social outreach. Mercy is the beating heart that grounds, informs and forms their activities—all leading to help others encounter the ever-present Spirit of Jesus Christ in their own lives. In the Jubilee of Mercy, we are invited to draw from the well-spring of Church’s best practices to develop a merciful attitude towards people and created things through the exercise of the works of mercy (corporal and spiritual) which heals the heart and inspires the hand, head and heels to move the person to go out and seek the “lost, least and last.”

In contemporary world, mercy is also prophetic as it calls attention to the perverse and dehumanizing effect of indignities and injustice committed against the poor and marginalized: the killing of the innocent and exploitation of the victims. It stands as a mirror to the greed and selfishness that mar the relationships of the present between persons, peoples, classes and nations. Pope Francis often describes this as a mentality of throwaway culture and ideological warfare that prioritize profit over people, competition over cooperation, exploitation over empathy, rights over rite. In contrast, a culture of mercy recognizes the face of the broken, wounded and sad, the face we encounter in the peripheries of modern societies.

The Jubilee Year of Mercy invites us to a renewal of joy that is both nurturing of humanity and fostering solidarity grounded in the bosom of mercy, compassion, solidarity and fellowship. It leads us to the reality of the Kingdom and it makes us desire that we take part of its realization among us through little gestures of love and mercy.

Beginning with ourselves, let mercy shine outward and joyfully! (Fr. Kim Lachica, S.J.)