MISERANDO ATQUE ELIGENDO

Pope Francis, faithful not only to his episcopal motto but also to his spirit of evangelical faith, has announced the calling of an Extraordinary Jubilee for the whole of the Church: the Holy Year of Mercy

The motto of the Holy Father Francis is taken from the Homilies of the Venerable St. Bede, a priest (Hom. 21; CCL 122, 149-151), who, when commenting on the gospel episode of the vocation of St. Matthew, wrote: ‘Vidit ergo lesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi Sequere me’ (Jesus saw a tax-collector and as he looked at him with feelings of love and chose him, said to him: follow me).

This homily is an act of homage to divine mercy and is reproduced in the Liturgy of the Houses of the feast day of St. Matthew. It has a special meaning in the life and the spiritual itinerary of the Pope. Indeed, on the feast day of St. Matthew of the year 1953, the young Jorge Bergoglio experienced, at the age of seventeen, in a totally special way, the loving presence of God in his life. After confession, he felt his heart touched and the descent of the mercy of God who with a look of tender love called him to religious life, following the example of St. Ignatius de Loyola.

Once he had been elected a bishop, H.E. Msgr. Bergoglio, in remembrance of that event which marked the beginning of his total consecration to God in His Church, decided to chose as his motto and life’s programme the phrase of St. Bede miserando atque eligendo, which he later reproduced in his papal coat of arms.
PENITENTIAL CELEBRATION
RITE FOR THE RECONCILIATION OF THE MOST PENITENT
WITH CONFESSION AND INDIVIDUAL ABSOLUTION

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS

Vatican Basilica

Friday, 13 March 2015

This year as well, as we head into of the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we have gathered to celebrate the penitential liturgy. We are united with so many Christians who, today, in every part of the world, have accepted the invitation to live this moment as a sign of the goodness of the Lord. The Sacrament of Reconciliation, indeed, allows us with confidence to draw near to the Father, in order to be certain of His pardon. He really is ‘rich in mercy’ and extends His mercy with abundance over those who turn to Him with a sincere heart.

To be here in order to experience His love, however, is first and foremost the fruit of His grace. As the Apostle Paul reminds us, God never ceases to demonstrate the richness of His mercy down the centuries. The transformation of the heart that leads us to confess our sins is ‘God’s gift’. On our own we cannot achieve this. Being able to confess our sins is God’s gift, it is a present, it is ‘His work’ (cf. Eph 2:8-10). To be touched with tenderness by His hand and shaped by His grace allows us, therefore, to approach the priest without fear for our sins, but, rather, with the certainty of being welcomed by him in the name of God, and understood despite our miseries; and also to draw near without a defence lawyer: we have only one such lawyer, who gave his life for our sins! It is he who, with the Father, always defends us. Coming out of the confessional, we will feel God’s strength which restores life and returns the enthusiasm of faith. After confession we will be reborn.

The Gospel we have heard (cf. Lk 7:36-50) opens up to us a path of hope and comfort. It is good that we should feel that same compassionate gaze of Jesus upon us, as it was perceived by the sinful woman in the house of the Pharisee. In this passage two words come back to us with insistence: love and judgement.

     There is the love of the sinful woman who humbles herself before the Lord; but even before that there is the merciful love of Jesus for her, which leads her to draw near. Her cry of repentance and joy washes the feet of the Teacher, and her hair dries them with gratitude; her kisses are an expression of her pure affection; and the scented ointment poured out with abundance attests to how precious He is in her eyes. Every action of this woman speaks of love and expresses her desire to have an unshakeable certainty in her life: that of being forgiven. And this certainty is very beautiful! And Jesus gives her this assurance: in welcoming her, he demonstrates God’s love for her, specifically for her, a public sinner! Love and forgiveness are simultaneous: God forgives her much, He forgives her everything, because ‘she loved much’ (Luke 7:47); and she worships Jesus because she feels that in him there is mercy and not condemnation. She feels that Jesus understands her with love, she who is a sinner. Thanks to Jesus, God casts her many sins away behind Him, He no longer remembers them (cf. Is 43:25). Because this, too, is true: when God forgives, He forgets. The forgiveness of God is great! For her, a new season now begins; she is reborn in love to a new life.

This woman has truly met the Lord. In silence, she opened her heart to Him; in pain, she showed repentance for her sins; with her weeping, she appealed to the goodness of God to receive forgiveness. For her, there will be no judgment except that which comes from God, and this is the judgment of mercy. The protagonist of this meeting is certainly love, the mercy that goes beyond justice.

  Simon, the owner of the house, a Pharisee, on the contrary, cannot find the path of love. Everything is calculated, everything is thought through…He remains firm upon the threshold of formality. Formal love is an ugly thing, the understanding is not there. He is not capable of taking the next step to go to meet Jesus who is bringing him salvation. Simon confined himself to inviting Jesus to lunch but did not really welcome him. In his thoughts he invokes only justice and in doing this he errs. His judgment about the woman distances him from the truth and does not allow him even to understand who his guest is. He halted at the surface – at formality – and he was not able to look at the heart. Faced with the parable of Jesus and the question of which servant loved his master most, the Pharisee answered correctly, ‘The one who was forgiven more’. And Jesus does not fail to observe: ‘You are right’ (Lk 7:43). Only when the judgment of Simon is turned toward love is he then in the right.

The call of Jesus leads each of us never to halt at the surface of things, above all when we have before us a person. We are called to look beyond, to point at the heart to see how much generosity each person is capable of. No one can be excluded from the mercy of God; everyone knows the path by which to gain access to it and the Church is the house that welcomes everyone and refuses no one. Her doors remain wide open so that those who are touched by grace can find the certainty of forgiveness. The greater the sin, the greater must be the love that the Church expresses toward those who convert. With how much love does Jesus look at us! With how much love does he heal our sinful hearts! He is never afraid of our sins. We may think of the prodigal son who, when he decides to return to his father, thinks about making a speech to him, but his father does not allow him to speak but embraces him (cf. Lk 15,17-24). This is how Jesus is with us. ‘Father, I have so many sins…’ – ‘But he will be happy if you go to him: he will embrace you with so much love! Do not be afraid’.

Dear brothers and sisters, I have often thought about how the Church might make her mission of being a witness to mercy more evident. This is journey that begins with a spiritual conversion, and this is a journey that we must make. For this reason, I have decided to call an extraordinary Jubilee which will have the mercy of God at its centre. It will be a Holy Year of Mercy. We want to live this Year in the light of the Lord’s words: ‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful’ (cf. Lk 6:36). And this in particular for confessors! So much mercy!

This Holy Year will begin on the next Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and will end on 20 November 2016, the Sunday of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe and living face of the mercy of the Father. I entrust the organisation of this Jubilee to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation so that it may animate it as a new stage in the journey of the Church on her mission to bring to every person the Gospel of mercy.

I am convinced that the whole Church, which so much needs to receive mercy, because we are sinners, will find in this Jubilee the joy needed to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy of God, by which all of us are called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time. Let us not forget that God forgives everything, and God always forgives. Let us be tireless in asking for forgiveness. From this moment, I entrust this Year to the Mother of Mercy that she may turn her gaze upon us and watch over our journey: our penitential journey, our journey with open hearts, that will last for a year, to receive the indulgence of God, to receive the mercy of God.