Vatican City, 6 March 2014 (VIS) –
This morning, in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, Pope Francis met with
the clergy of the diocese of Rome. The central theme of the meeting,
inspired by the Gospel of St. Matthew, was mercy. The Holy Father
recalled how Jesus walked through towns and villages, feeling
compassion for those he encountered; people who were “tired and
worn out, like sheep without a shepherd”. “We are not here to
perform a spiritual exercise for the beginning of Lent, but rather to
listen to the voice of the Spirit that speaks to everyone in the
Church in this, our time, which is indeed the time of mercy”.
This “time of mercy” was Pope
Francis' first point of reflection. “Today, we forget everything
too easily, including the teaching of the Church! This is in part
inevitable, but we must not forget the important content, the great
intuitions and that which has been consigned to the People of God.
And divine mercy is among these. … It is up to us, as ministers of
the Church, to keep this message alive, above all in preaching and in
our gestures, in signs and in pastoral choices, such as the decision
to restore priority to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and at the
same time to works of mercy”.
Secondly, the Pope asked, “What does
it mean to be a priest?”. He explained that “priests are moved by
their sheep, like Jesus when he saw the people, tired and exhausted,
like sheep without a shepherd”. He commented that the priest,
following the example of the Good Shepherd, is a man of mercy and
compassion, close to his people and the servant of all. “In
particular, the priest demonstrates the depths of his mercy in
administering the Sacrament of Reconciliation; he shows this in all
his attitude, in his way of welcoming, listening, advising and
absolving. … But this derives from how he lives this Sacrament
himself. … If a person lives this himself, in his own heart, he is
also able to give it to others in his ministry”.
The Holy Father added that the heart of
a priest must be susceptible to being moved, as “sterile priests do
not help the Church. … We can think of today's Church as a kind of
'field hospital', where we need to tend to injuries. … There are
many people who are wounded by material problems, by scandals, even
in the Church. … People wounded by the illusions of the world. …
We priests must be there, close to these people. Mercy means, above
all, taking care of wounds. When a person is injured, this is the
immediate help they need, not analyses; the special care can follow,
but first we need to tend to the open wounds. Do you know what your
parishioners' wounds are? Are you close to them?”.
In the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
mercy means “neither undue laxity nor excessive rigour”. “Often,
as priests, we hear of the experience of the faithful who say they
have encountered in Confession a very 'rigid' or a very 'flexible'
priest, lax or rigorous. That there may be differences in style is
normal, but these differences must not relate to the substance, that
is the healthy moral doctrine and mercy. Neither the lax nor the
rigorous bear witness to Jesus, because neither of them truly take on
the people they meet. … True mercy truly takes the person on board
… and acts like the Good Samaritan. … Neither laxity nor rigour
make holiness flourish”.
“Instead, mercy accompanies the path
of holiness, and helps growth. But how? Through pastoral suffering,
which is a form of mercy. What does pastoral suffering mean? It means
suffering with the people, like a father and a mother suffer for
their children, and I would say also with anxiety”.
Pope Francis shared with the clergy
some questions that helped him when a priest comes to him for advice.
“Do you cry? How many of us cry when faced with the suffering of a
child, the destruction of a family, before the many people who cannot
find their path? The tears of a priest … Do you cry, or is this a
clergy that has lost its tears? Do you cry for your people? Do you
battle with the Lord for your people, like Abraham fought?”
The Bishop of Rome concluded by
commenting that in the end, “we will be judged for how we have been
able to be close to 'every flesh', to our neighbours, to the flesh of
our brothers. … At the end of time, only those who have not been
ashamed before the flesh of his injured and excluded brother will be
admitted to the contemplation of Christ's glorified flesh”.