Mother of Mercy

Welcome to Stories Seldom Heard.  I especially would like to welcome the parishioners of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Brooklyn, New York and the members of the St. John Paul II Institute, Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas.

January 1st is the feast of Mary, the Mother of God.  Even though over the centuries Mary has been honored with a variety of titles this title was the first to be celebrated and affirmed by the Council of Ephesus in 431.  After the declaration of the Council there was a flourishing of icons that portrayed Mary, the Mother of God (Theotokos) in regal images. The Byzantine and Syrian Church began celebrating the feast of Mary, Mother of God in the 6th Century.  They chose December 26th to commemorate the feast. Over the centuries this feast has been commemorated on different days. However, since the Second Vatican Council, January 1st  has become the designated date for this feast.  It is also the day that is dedicated to pray for World Peace.

Mary has many titles: Morning Star, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Guadalupe which means the one who crushes serpents.  Islam also has titles for Mary: She who believes sincerely totally, the Mother of the One who is Light, She who never sinned. But this year as we hear the Doors of Mercy slowly opening around the world the title that comes most quickly to mind is Mary, the Mother of Mercy.  Officially this year of Mercy and Jubilee began on December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. The teachings from the Second Vatican Council breathed a new Spirit into the Church. As Pope Francis said, “The walls which too long had made the Church a kind of fortress were torn down and the time had come to proclaim the Gospel in a new way.”  The Council was a new phase of the same Church that had existed from the beginning.  By declaring the year of Mercy, Francis hopes to rekindle that Spirit.  He desires all people to enter through a Door of Mercy in whatever region of the world they live.  His prayer is that everyone who enters prayerfully and thoughtfully will experience the profound love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.

Pope Francis has been working for a long time to celebrate publicly and boldly God’s all -encompassing love and forgiveness.  The Pope’s first journey out of Rome was to the Island of Lampedusa, July 8, 2013.  There he wept for the tens of thousands of migrants who had drowned in the treacherous Mediterranean Sea seeking asylum.  His message for those present there and for all people throughout the world is to become “islands of mercy in a world that is a sea of indifference.”  In other words, we who have received God’s mercy must be mercy to others.

Overwhelmed with the desire for all people to be assured of God’s mercy, Pope Francis could not wait for the official date and place.  On November 29, 2015 while the Pope was in Bangui, Central African Republic, he used both hands and his body weight to push open the Holy Door of the cathedral.  He prayed for those present there and for us to receive the mercy and peace of God so that we might put down our weapons of war and work for justice.

But when the Pope speaks of justice, he is not thinking of a woman blindfolded as our Statue of Liberty suggests.  He is imaging God’s justice as it is revealed in Scriptures and the life of Jesus.  Through Scripture we come to understand that God is not a judge.  God does not obey laws established by a higher authority.  There is no higher authority.  God acts according to God’s own desire.  God is loving kindness and mercy.  For God, mercy is not the opposite of justice.  Mercy is God’s justice.  They are one.  The image that the psalmist offers us says it well.  “Mercy and justice have embraced;  justice and peace will kiss” (Psalm 85: 10).  Mercy is God’s free continual turning towards each person with unconditional love.   When the bible speaks of God’s mercy, it uses the Hebrew word hesed which means unmerited loving kindness, favor and divine grace.  As we come to understand God’s mercy in these terms, we become acutely aware that hesed is part of the mystery of God.

It is impossible to grasp the depth of God’s unconditional love.  The more we come to know God the more we become aware of what we do not understand.  It has taken us humans a long time to begin to understand it even though throughout the Bible God continually reveals God’s compassion and mercy.  God says to Moses “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6). As we read the prophets, we hear of the people’s disobedience and God’s wrath.  But in the end God’s compassion flares up and God decides not to destroy the people.  “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back.  In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you; but with enduring love I take pity on you, says the Lord, your redeemer….Though the mountains fall away and the hills be shaken, My love shall never fall away from you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the Lord, who has mercy on you” (Isa 54: 7-8, 10).  Mercy is always victorious because it is who God is.  “For I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in anger” (Hos 11:9).

The prophets Isaiah and Micah also tell us of God who is Mercy.  “For God will abundantly pardon” (Isa 55:7).  “God delights in showing clemency” (Mic 7:8).  The Psalms affirm and personalize individual people’s experiences of God’s hesed.  Psalm 86:5 says, “For you, O God, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.”

This Year of Jubilee, the Year of Mercy, is an invitation to each of us to meditate on the many ways we have experienced mercy – both from God and others.  Reading and meditating on Psalm 25:10, Ps 36:5, Ps 51:1, Ps 86:15, Ps103:8, Ps 106:1, Ps 107:1, Ps 116:5, Wis 15:1 might help deepen our understanding of the ways God has been merciful to us throughout our lives.  We might want to write our own psalm/prayer/reflection on how we have experienced God’s hesed – unmerited loving kindness, favor and divine grace.  As the realization of God’s mercy begins to seep deeply into our consciousness, we can pray in gratitude and for guidance.  In other words, flowing out of our sense of wonder and gratitude we might ask God to reveal to us how we can become Mercy: God’s mercy made flesh through our words and actions.

How might we do this?  Walter Kasper is the Pope’s theologian.  In his book Mercy he identifies a variety of attributes that are connected with mercy: generosity, clemency, mildness, gentleness, patience, magnanimity, kindness to humans and all creation, to mention a few.  The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Reflecting on these actions and according to our own situation we might choose to volunteer to bring a dinner each week for those living in a winter shelter, visit those who are in family detention centers, attend a service for those who have been murdered because of gang violence, or write letters in support of Bread for the World or another organization that strategizes and works to end world hunger.

There are also spiritual works of mercy.  These include instructing, advising, consoling, comforting, and forgiving those who have offended us.  Visiting an elderly neighbor, occasional grocery shopping for a busy mom or dad, making a pot of chicken soup for someone who is ill, writing a letter to comfort someone who has had a death in the family or who is seriously ill are some ways to practice the spiritual works of mercy.  Our awareness of mercy is a gift that changes us from the inside out and mercy can change the world.  A little mercy can make the world less cold and more just.

January is usually the time we make resolutions.  This year of Jubilee is a special year of grace, but it is not a magical year.  God’s abundant mercy is always present, but we must choose to receive it.  So it is important to spend some time now and decide how we will individually respond to this year of mercy.  Otherwise the year might slip away without any transformation taking place in our attitudes and actions.

The Pope has already made some decisions about how he will participate in the Year of Mercy and encourage this revolution of tenderness throughout the world.  He will perform a symbolic and concrete work of mercy on one Friday of every month.  The first action he took was on Dec. 18th.  He opened a Door of Mercy at a hostel near the central train station where for the past twenty-five years people in grave need have found help.

The invitation of the Year of Mercy is large.  Each diocese will commit itself to one or more particular action of mercy.  These actions will vary depending on the local situation. The Oakland Diocese, in which I live, has announced a ground-breaking public-faith-based partnership to create homes for child victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The Diocese is in Alameda County which is one of the nation’s high intensity locations of child sex trafficking. The coalition’s vision is to provide a series of safe houses and independent living facilities, which will be places of healing, hope and dignity for the vulnerable girls who fall prey to traffickers. Parishes throughout the world also are involved.  In Brooklyn, New York, Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish is organizing pilgrimages to a designated church where the “pilgrims” will pray and walk through the Door of Mercy.  Some of the pilgrim-parishioners will go by bus or car others will make the pilgrimage on foot.

Our “yes” does not look the same as Mary’s “yes” to the angel, but “yes” is “yes”!  This is what we have said by our Baptism, Confirmation, and continue to say in our Eucharistic celebrations, private prayers, devotions and through our works of mercy and justice. Our “yes” is an important “yes” if Jesus is to be birthed into our world today. Meister Eckhart, the Dominican friar of 14th century Germany says it well:

We are all meant to be mothers of God.  What good is it to me, if this eternal birth of the Divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within me?  And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace?  What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to His/Her son if I do not also give birth to Him in my time and my culture?  This, then, is the fullness of time. When the Son of God is Begotten in us.

Special thanks to Mary Ellen Green and Maria Hetherton who have helped in editing this article.