Vatican City, 2 December 2015 (VIS) –
The Italian magazine “Credere” today published an interview with
Pope Francis ahead of the imminent opening of the Jubilee Year of
Mercy, in which the Holy Father explains the motives and expectations
of this convocation. The following are extensive extracts from the
interview:
“The theme of mercy has been strongly
accentuated in the life of the Church, starting with Pope Paul VI.
John Paul II underlined it firmly with Dives in Misericordia, the
canonisation of St. Faustina and the institution of the feast of
Divine Mercy on the Octave of Easter. In line with this, I felt that
it was as if it was the Lord's wish to show His mercy to humanity. It
was not something that came to my mind, but rather the relatively
recent renewal of a tradition that has however always existed. … It
is obvious that today's world is in need of mercy and compassion, or
rather of the capacity for empathy. We are accustomed to bad news,
cruel news and the worst atrocities that offend the name and the life
of God. The world needs to discover that God is the Father, that
there is mercy, that cruelty is not the way, that condemnation is not
the way, because it is the Church herself who at times takes a hard
line, and falls into the temptation to follow a hard line and to
underline moral rules only; many people are excluded. The image of
the Church as a field hospital after a battle comes to mind here: it
is the truth, so many people are injured and destroyed! … I believe
that this is the time for mercy. We are all sinners, all of us carry
inner burdens. I felt that Jesus wanted to open the door to His
heart, that the Father wants to show us his innate mercy, and for
this reason he sends us the Spirit. … It is the year of
reconciliation. On the one hand we see the weapons trade … the
murder of innocent people in the cruellest ways possible, the
exploitation of people, of children. There is currently a form of
sacrilege against humanity, because man is sacred, he is the image of
the living God. And the Father says, 'stop and come to me'”.
In response to the second question on
the importance of divine mercy in the life of Pope Francis, who has
repeatedly affirmed his awareness of being a sinner, he says:
“I am a sinner … I am sure of this.
I am a sinner whom the Lord looked upon with mercy. I am, as I said
to detainees in Bolivia, a forgiven man. … I still make mistakes
and commit sins, and I confess every fifteen or twenty days. And if I
confess it is because I need to feel that God's mercy is still upon
me”. Francis recalled that he felt this sensation in a particular
way on 21 September 1953, when he felt the need to enter a church and
confess to a priest he did not know, and from then his life was
changed; he decided to become a priest and his confessor, who was
suffering from leukaemia, accompanied him for a year. “He died the
following year”, said the Pope. “After the funeral I cried
bitterly, I felt totally lost, as if with the fear that God had
abandoned me. This was the moment in which I came across God's mercy,
and it is closely linked to my episcopal motto: 21 September is the
feast day of St. Matthew, and the Venerable Bede, when speaking of
the conversion of St. Matthew, says that Jesus looked at him
'miserando atque eligendo'. … The literal translation would be
'pitying and choosing'”.
“Can the Jubilee of Mercy be an
opportunity to rediscover God's 'maternity'? Is there an almost
'feminine' aspect of the Church that must be valued?” is the third
question.
“Yes”, the Holy Father replies.
“God Himself affirms this when He says in the Book of Isaiah that a
mother could perhaps forget her child, even a mother can forget, but
'I will never forsake you'. Here we see the maternal dimension of
God. Not everyone understands when we speak about God's maternity, it
is not part of 'popular' language – in the good sense of the word –
and may seem rather elitist; for this reason I prefer to speak about
the tenderness, typical of a mother, God's tenderness that comes from
his innate paternity. God is both father and mother”.
In response to a question on whether
the discovery of a more merciful and emotional God, Who is moved to
tenderness for mankind, should lead to a change of attitude towards
others, Francis says: “Discovering this leads us to have a more
tolerant, more patient, more tender attitude. In 1994 during the
Synod, in a group meeting, I said that it was necessary to begin a
revolution of tenderness … and I continue to say that today the
revolution is that of tenderness, because justice derives from this.
… The revolution of tenderness is what we must cultivate today as
the fruit of this year of mercy: God's tenderness towards each one of
us. Each one of us must say, 'I am a wretch, but God loves me as I
am; so, I must love others in the same way'”.
The journalist recalls St. John XXIII's
famous “Sermon to the moon”, in which greeting the faithful one
night, he told them to give a caress to their children. “This image
became an image of the Church's tenderness. In what way does the
theme of mercy help our Christian communities to convert and renew
themselves?”
“When I see the sick, the elderly,
the caress comes to me spontaneously. … The caress is a gesture
that can be interpreted ambiguously, but it is the first gesture that a
mother and father offer a newborn child, this gesture that says 'I
love you, I wish well to you'”.
Finally, “ is there a gesture you
intend to make during the Jubilee to show God's mercy?”
“There will be many gestures, but one
Friday each month I will make a different gesture”, the Holy Father
concludes.
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