In his book, The Name of God is Mercy, Pope Francis shares many helpful insights about mercy. Each person attending the pilgrimage will be receiving a copy of this book. It is hoped that everyone would read this book before they attend the pilgrimage. This book will be used to guide our reflections on the pilgrimage of mercy. Pope Francis is a gifted homilist and story teller. He is willing to allow the power of God to work through the stories he tells. For me, his stories have a way of challenging me in the depths of my heart.
In the beginning of this book, four stories are told: two from scripture, one from a novel, and one from his personal experience as a priest. These four stories form a mosaic of mercy and introduce mercy to us. We have to bring, in the words of the late Notre Dame theologian, John Dunne, “all that is unsolved in our heart,” to these four stories. These stories open up more unsolved areas in our hearts. These stories challenge us to be courageous about where we stand with God. The book opens with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The stance of the tax collector is that he does not look up, he does not look at others to compare, he looks inward and sees his utter misery and brings his misery honestly to God.
Do you want to make a pilgrimage of mercy? Look at the word in Latin for mercy, miserecordia - literally, “miserable heart”. The tax collector did not simply dwell inside of himself and stay with his miserable heart and lick his miserable wounds on his own. He persevered in prayer and by grace, he lifted his miserable heart to God. He asked for mercy, and his request for mercy was not measured by any comparisons with other people. It was his own heart, his own misery and God’s mercy. He went home justified by God. This then is our stance: we are not on a pilgrimage of mercy to compare ourselves to others, we are here to be interiorly honest with God and trust in his mercy, which comes down to asking for the gift of faith.
The second story recounted about mercy is in John’s Gospel concerning the adulterous women and her accusers (John 8). According to Pope Francis, the only objective of her accusers is to test Jesus, to lay a trap for Jesus: “They didn’t care about the woman, they didn't care about adultery.” Pope Francis then says something quite profound: “Jesus forgives, but here this is something more than forgiveness, because as confessor, Jesus goes beyond the law… the law stated that she must be punished. What’s more, Jesus was pure and could have cast the first stone.” But Christ “goes further than that, he does not say that adultery is not a sin but he does not condemn her with the law.” This is “the mystery of the mercy of Jesus.” On the pilgrimage of mercy, this is our central goal: to contemplate the mystery of the mercy of Jesus. A mercy that preserves the true goal of the law, while not condemning the person with the law.
The third story of mercy is from a novel by Bruce Marshal called Every Man a Penny. The protagonist of the novel, Gaston, a young priest, needs to hear the confession of a young German soldier whom the French partisans are about to sentence to death. The soldier confesses his passion for women and the numerous amorous adventures he had. The priest explains that he must repent to obtain forgiveness and absolution. The soldier answers, “how can I repent, it was something I enjoyed, and if I had the chance I would do it again even now, how can I repent?” Father Gaston, who wants to absolve the man who has been marked by destiny and who is about to die, has a stroke of inspiration and asks, “but are you sorry that you are not sorry?” The young man answers impulsively, “yes, I am sorry that I am not sorry,”--in other words, he is sorry for not repenting. That sorrow is the opening that allows the merciful priest to give the man absolution. (The Name of God is Mercy, Introduction, pp. xix, xx).
The fourth story is based on a pastoral encounter Pope Francis had when he was auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aries. “I can remember that episode very well; it’s fixed in my memory. I can see her in front of me now. I was there to take confessions toward the end of Mass. I got up because I had to leave, I had to celebrate a Confirmation. That’s when the lady appeared, elderly and humble. I turned toward her and called her Abuela, “Grandmother,” as we do in Argentina. ‘Abuela, do you want to confess?’ ‘Yes,’ she replied. And since, as I was ready to leave, I said: ‘but if you have no sins...’ Her answer was swift and immediate: ‘we all have sins.’ ‘But maybe the Lord can’t forgive them,’ I said. ‘The Lord forgives everything.’ ‘How do you know?’ ‘If the Lord didn’t forgive everything, the world would not exist.’ ... I was struck by the woman’s words, without mercy, without God’s forgiveness the world would not exist, it couldn't exist.” (The Name of God is Mercy, pp. 24-25.)
Like Mary, we want to ponder these stories in our hearts as we prepare for the pilgrimage of mercy. In his book, Pope Francis shares with us key insights about cultivating an attitude of openness to mercy. As you read his book, I would pay attention to the attitudes we would need to have in order to be open to mercy. On pages 31-32, he speaks of having a contrite heart and what that means. On pages 9-10, there is a description of the gift of shame. On pages 15-16, he answers a crucial question: “why is humanity so in need of mercy?” On pages 42-43 he answers: “what are we sinners?” On page 43 he gives advice about making a good confession. On page 50, there is a quote: “Jesus forgave even those who crucified and scorned him. We must go back to the gospel. We find that it speaks not only of a welcoming and forgiveness, but also of the feast for the returning son. The expression of mercy is the joy of the feast and that is well expressed in the Gospel of Luke.”