Lent and Easter: Seasons of Mercy

 “God waits; he waits for us to concede him only the smallest glimmer of space so that he can enact his forgiveness and his charity within us. Only he who has been touched and caressed by the tenderness of his mercy really knows the Lord. For this reason I have often said that the place where my encounter with the mercy of Jesus takes place is my sin. When you feel his merciful embrace, when you let yourself be embraced, when you are moved—that’s when life can change, because that’s when we try to respond to the immense and unexpected gift of grace, a gift that is so overabundant it may even seem “unfair” in our eyes. We stand before a God who knows our sins, our betrayals, our denials, our wretchedness. And yet he is there waiting for us, ready to give himself completely to us, to lift us up.”

Pope Francis,  “The Name of God is Mercy”, Ch. 3

As we anticipate the grace which the Lord Jesus always offers us during the weeks of Lent, and trusting in the new life which the Lord freely pours out during the weeks of Easter, I invite all Catholics to live this great cycle of divine love with special devotion this year. We are living in the Holy Year of Mercy. The Lord God desires a Church renewed in the experience of mercy received and shared. The Holy Father has given voice to this great longing of the Lord, inviting us to provoke a great revolution of tenderness in the world today.

This revolution becomes a reality in every soul if first we draw near to the Lord to seek his grace and pardon. In the words cited at the beginning of this letter, Pope Francis says that only one who had been touched by the tenderness of the Lord really knows Him. The meaning here is quite practical. The seasons of Lent and Easter invite us to examine our consciences and our reality under the light of his mercy. The Lord lived his Passion, he died and rose on the third day to free us from sin. Let us go, then, to seek an encounter with him in the sacrament of confession. The priest is consecrated to be an instrument of this encounter. I have asked all the priests to facilitate this encounter by offering more occasions during the week so that the faithful can go to confession and live the freeing experience of pardon and mercy.

I also invite all of our parishes to focus attention on the practice of mercy by means of concrete works. The Lord who gives us his tenderness desires that we dedicate ourselves more conscientiously to being instruments of mercy with our neighbors in need. I would like to see every parish adopt one spiritual work of mercy and one corporal work of mercy as works prominently emphasized in the community. To pray for the living and the dead, to console the sorrowing, to counsel the troubled, these are works which the Lord desires to inspire within us. To give food to one who is hungry, to give covering to one who is cold, to visit one who is imprisoned, these are the works which communicate the presence of the Risen Christ in the world today.

Also, I would like to encourage all the faithful to seek occasions to invite their neighbors who have drifted from the Church to seek the merciful face of Christ during these days of mercy. Many people tell me that they do not go to Mass because for one reason or another they cannot go to holy Communion. But this ought not impede an encounter with the Lord. St. Mark tells us in his Gospel that the people hastened to find where the Lord was staying simply to be close to him (see Mk 1, 32-45). We can be sure that if someone makes the effort simply to draw near to the Lord, to see him raised up in the host during the Mass, that the Lord will not fail to bless that person with his kindness. Let us recall what the Holy Father says: The Lord “waits for us to concede him only the smallest glimmer of space so that he can enact his forgiveness and his charity within us.” In the mystery of mercy, sometimes it is the trembling soul kneeling in the last pew who, because of humility and sincere sorrow, leaves the Church closer to the Lord than the one who always sits in the front pew (see Lk 18,13f). Let us not judge those who do not go to Communion; let us welcome them and imitate their humility in seeking the Lord of Mercy.

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