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Year of Mercy December 8, 2015 November 20, 2016
Seeing the great need for mercy and healing in the world, Pope Francis called for the Year of Mercya
special period, a Jubilee Year, for the Catholic Church.
Photo: Pope Francis at Vargihna" by Tnia Rgo/ABr - Agncia Brasil. Creative Commons
It is a time for us to focus on mercy, forgiveness, and
healing in a special way.
We, as Vincentians, can and must be witnesses of
mercy.
The Return of the Prodigal Son by Bartolom Esteban Murillo (16171682)
Mercy was the motivating factor behind all of Saint Vincent de Pauls charitable activity.
Photo by daryl_mitchell from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, via Wikimedia Commons
In reflecting on Vincent de Paul and mercy, let us
use the imagery of the Holy Door, one of the
most powerful signs of the Jubilee.
Every Christian is called to pass through the door from sin to grace.
Every believer is responsible to cross its threshold. We are free to choose it. It requires the courage
to leave something behind, in order to gain divine life.
What doors did St. Vincent and his collaborators
choose to open?
St. Vincent, together with the Ladies of Charity, rescued
babies who were abandoned at church doors or at the
entrances to hospitals; the Daughters of Charity helped
raise and educate them
Why? out of mercy since society considered them as children of sin,
children of adultery, of rape; unplanned, unwanted
The Daughters of Charity carried the soup pot through the city, and cared for sick prisoners who sometimes
became violent towards them
Why? out of mercy if there was violence, it was because they were suffering
Vincent visited the galleys and showed great zeal in preaching
missionary style to the prisoners, who were as
distanced from God as they were abandoned by men.
Why? out of mercy to take the side of those who were living in misery
The Confraternities of Charity, composed of women, were set up in the places where Vincents priests
gave missions. They assisted the sick poor by doing extremely unpleasant jobs such as: bloodlettings, which
were thought to cure disease; preparing and giving enemas;
dressing wounds; changing bed linens and watching at night over the sick who were alone and near death
Why? out of mercy, out of compassion for the sick
Besides these corporal services, they tried to
contribute to their spiritual welfare
(CCD:II:600, 602)
Why? out of mercy they clothed themselves in the spirit of Jesus Christ and
thus revealed the merciful Father in everything that they did
Our Little Company is established to go from village to
village at its own expense, preaching, catechizing, and
having the poor people make general confessions of their
entire past life. (CCD:I:553)
Why? out of mercy Vincents ministry revealed what the Son of God did in the name of the Father in order to reveal the
Father the Father is a good Father, filled with mercy, one who is profoundly moved
by all his children
Vincent met with Frances Chief Minister, Cardinal
Richelieu, and asked him to stop the war.
Why? out of mercy to defend victims of war, to prevent them from being forgotten
or marginalized
Vincent publicly and radically opposed the exploitive policies of
Cardinal Mazarin. He crossed battle lines and forged an overflowing river in order to see the Queen to ask her to remove Mazarin from office. (This
was when Vincent was almost seventy years old!)
Why did he do this? out of mercy the people who were suffering did not
deserve to be punished. To respond with true mercy we must
penetrate the mechanisms that produce poverty, marginalization and exclusion.
We are unable to go and give missions in the rural areas because
the poor people are so scattered [] driven from their homes by fear of
being mistreated by the soldiers --- so we have decided to give them to the people who have taken refuge in Paris. [] One of our men has also gone to open the mission for the refugees at Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet (CCD:IV:398-399)
Why? out of mercy for refugees
Vincent was equally concerned about looking
for ways to reform the clergy.
Why? out of mercy for the people
From the time that Madame de Gondi alerted him about the ignorance of the clergy, he felt a heavy weight upon his shoulders because to Vincent, the peoples ignorance and sin were
not always their own fault; he believed that the people were a reflection of their priest.
Vincent never criticized those who were poor
but saw them as victims and therefore not responsible for
their misery.Why? out of mercy and in
humility we are all in need of forgiveness
Vincent promoted the poor and helped them become aware of their
dignity, and that they must be the primary agents of their own development.
Why? because mercy and compassion pushed him to go further beyond their simply surviving, towards real growth
and transformation
Vincent felt it necessary to know the reality of the poor; to experience their
physical condition; to understand their situation
as human beings.Why? out of mercy
so that those persons who are excluded from participation in society
would feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God.
Vincents example leads us into action.
As Vincentians today,
we must:
respond to all the needs that are presented
to us
seek out those who are the poorest and
most abandoned
move from village to village as Jesus did, drawing near to and affirming those who are poor and infirm
give help in such a way that the recipients may gradually be freed from dependence on
outsiders and become self-sufficient
so they can in turn go and do likewise to others
Mercy as Christ has presented it in the parable of the prodigal son has the interior form of the love that in the New Testament is called agape. This love is able to reach down to every
prodigal son, to every human misery, and above all to every form of moral
misery, to sin. When this happens, the person who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather found again and "restored to value"
(John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia, #6)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills
hope (Misericordiae Vultus, No. 3).
Pope Francis, referring to the Door of Mercy
Photo: Hijas de la Caridad-Pastoral Vocacional Facebook Page
Let us keep the spirit of Saint
Vincent de Paul alive in this
Year of Mercy.
Let us always leave open the door that leads to mercy and
hope!
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