A Shepherd's Message - Jan. 26, 2016

This past December, our Holy Father inaugurated the Year of Mercy, a Jubilee Year for which there are many dimensions. There are re-discoveries of the face of God, a face turned towards all humanity in Jesus Christ, a face of mercy and faithfulness. There are renewed practices of what we have called in our tradition the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, activities to be taken up both communally and personally by members of the Body of Christ. There are dimensions of this Year of Mercy that touch our social outreach and understanding of the poor, of our overcoming of a ‘throwaway culture,’ of our better grasp of the beauty of the earth and the dedication we must show our common home in its air, water and land. There are other dimensions that beckon us so as to engage in a renewed prayer life and the ability, amidst so much noise, confusion and consumption, to slow down and appreciate the beauty and truth of the Lord in contemplation.

As our Holy Father has frequently said, the real centerpiece for the Year of Mercy is the reality and significance of Sacramental Confession. The Pope has just published a new book, “The Name of God is Mercy,” a series of interviews with an Italian journalist. Early in the book the Pope mentions the celebration of Confession he did on September 21, 1953, the Feast of St. Matthew. He was seventeen years old and recognized, as almost for the first time, that he welcomed God’s unfathomable mercy into his life. The priest helped him understand forever the call of Matthew, the tax collector. The expression in Latin, “miserando atque eligendo,” “having mercy (on him) he chose Him!” became a theme of for the Holy Father’s life. He chose it as his motto when named a bishop. For Pope Francis, Confession is the moment of encounter with a loving, forgiving Lord. He keeps urging everyone to continually celebrate this great sacrament. In receiving mercy we recognize anew our call to serve the Lord and His people.

Sacramental Confession involves us in two distinctive but interconnected realities. At all times we need to be on the road of conversion, a continual deepening and refining of a change of our lives bringing us always towards the Lord, turning us always towards the Lord! This is true even in times when we are not conscious of grave sin or we are feeling close the Lord. There are also times when we need deep reconciliation with the Lord and His people; times in which we have become cut-off and require re-grafting onto the Body, the vine of the Church. We are in need of Confession as the Sacrament of Reconciliation, eyelash-to-eyelash with the merciful Lord Jesus. Because the realities are interconnected but distinctive, it can happen that we become bored with the ‘everyday conversion’ confessions and find them irritating because we do not seem to be improving much on the journey. As Pope Francis writes, in these situations, spiritual discernment is needed so that we can recognize that the grace of the Lord happens not only in great moments of reconciliation from deep sin, but also in the trickling moments of the small grace that ordinary sacramental confession provides for us in our journey of faith and love. Small mercies are very important lessons in grace!

The Holy Father has asked the entire Church to make this coming March 4th, a Friday in the midst of Lent 2016, to be a “24 Hours for the Lord” and His mercy. He has asked each local Church, each parish, and all priests to be available for the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation throughout that day.

Here in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston we shall be doing planning for that day. We shall try to respond to this great call of Pope Francis. Let us pray for one another and encourage one another in this movement of grace; and let us pray for our priests to exercise the gift of mercy and healing given to them at their ordination. †