A church of mercy

Pope Francis tried to move the Church more and more to be a church of mercy, a church that responded to the needs of the most vulnerable people–the sick, the migrant, the refugee, the unhoused, all those who are discriminated against, all those who are unseen and uncared for.

In Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” he wrote, “Sometimes we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length. Yet Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others.

He hopes that we will stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead enter into the reality of other people’s lives and know the power of tenderness. Whenever we do, our lives become wonderfully complicated, and we experience intensely what it is to be a people, to be part of a people.”

So, mercy becomes a quality of the way we approach others, and we are invited to give what we have received–to receive the mercy of God into our life and to extend that mercy to the world around us.