Every act of mercy is divine

Mercy can only be relational; it is not an object or an idea; it changes both subjects involved; it is not subject to doctrinal definition.

Jan 08, 2016

Mercy can only be relational; it is not an object or an idea; it changes both subjects involved; it is not subject to doctrinal definition; is practical and experiential; it is always transcendent, in the sense that every act of mercy has to do with the divine; it is, by definition, inclusive and cannot be used to shape an exclusive, identity-obsessed form of the Christian faith.

One of the most important facts is that there is no particular minister of mercy; rather, we are all ministers of mercy.

For example, a person does not need to be a priest to “perform” the seven works of corporal mercy (feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, bury the dead) or the seven works of spiritual mercy (share knowledge, give advice to those who need it, comfort the suffering, be patient with others, forgive those who hurt you, give correction to those who need it, pray for the living and the dead). In all these works, the ‘matter’ of the sacrament of mercy is life itself, and the ministers are each one of us.

There are great ecclesiological consequences to this.

One of them is that the Jubilee becomes an opportunity, not to earn an indulgence, but to put an end to a certain way of being Church that has only partially received Vatican II and has augmented what the Council did, and did not, say.

Vatican Council II walked largely in the footsteps of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which put doctrine and the control of consciences at the center. But this interplay between truth as orthodoxy, and the role of conscience, puts an unbearable burden on a person.

A society like ours, which has become both more secularized and more individualistic, no longer helps the individual share faith with others or the experience of sin and reconciliation. The Jubilee is a way for Francis to address our unbalanced understanding of sin as a moral category, rather than the theological category that it really is; to address sin as something that has to do with charity, not orthodoxy.

The focus on mercy resets the balance between the importance of ortho doxy and the value of orthopraxy; that is, seeing ‘correct practices’ in light of mercy and not out of a moral sense disconnected from interpersonal relations. The focus on mercy also resets the balance that has been lost: balance between the individual/personal dimension and the community.

Overall, the emphasis on mercy answers the question of whether Christianity is an abstract intellectual truth or a form of life. Mercy can change the way the Church deals with reality, not only on the linguistic level (how we talk about things), but also on the practical level (how we deal with things) and, especially, on the ritual level (how we make of the act of mercy a sacramental act that gives grace).

The Jubilee has only just started and it is impossible to tell what kind of impact it will have on the future of the Church. Yet, it is clear through the way he is living out his pontificate and shaping this Holy Year, that Pope Francis is bringing about a further aggiornamento of the Church along the lines of Vatican II.

It is an up-dating of the Constantinian-imperial Church of the first millennium with its emphasis of dogma over kerygma, that is, over proclamation; the Church of the “Gregorian revolution” (from Pope Gregory VII) of the eleventh century that reshaped the Church as a the papal empire; the Scholastic Church of the philosophers-theologians with their metaphysical vocabulary; the Tridentine Church of the confessional boundaries clearly separating Catholics and Christians of other Churches; the overly Romanized Church of 19th Cen tury ultramontanism that said “there is no hope without the Pope”.

Despite an alternative narrative pushed by advocates of a ‘law and order’ Church (such as George Weigel offered in a recent article in First Things), there is substantial evidence that the Synod assembly in Rome two months ago has marked a new beginning for the Church. Antonio Spadaro SJ — editor of Civiltà Cattolica, the most important semi-official source of information on this pontificate — summed it up best.

“Pope Francis’ theological subtlety is expressed in such a way that it appears as a candid pastoral sensitivity,” he said in an article posted (also in English) on the venerable journal’s website.

“This is not a case of dissimulation, but of the form of theological discourse that is most appropriate to mission and to reform. It is therefore above all, necessary to recognize that the pastoral principle is the criterion of one’s understanding of the Gospel,” he pointed out.

“And the intense theological debate must be understood as a gain for the ‘organic development’ of the doctrine of the Church and of the truth of the Gospel,” Spadaro claimed.

Catholic culture proceeds, not by replacement or substitution of previous theological models, but by adding layer upon layer. There will always be some visible traces of the Constantinian period, the Gregorian revolution, Scholasticism and Tridentinism, and even ultramontanism.

But there is no question that Francis is working towards radically reorienting the Church around the Gospel for the world in our day. -- Global Pulse

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