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| Logo of the Year of Mercy Image from http://www.im.va |
“So Much Mercy!” exclaimed widely beloved Pope Francis when he
announced the Year of Mercy that begins today (December 8, 2015) and ends
November 20, 2016. This Extraordinary Jubilee (read more here) in the
Church will center on a particular focus upon God’s mercy. Today, the Church
begins a yearlong celebration, acceptance, and action of God’s mercy working
in, on, and through us. It begins on the feast of the Immaculate Conception and
ends on the celebration of Christ the King, which is no accident. We ask that
Mary, Mother of Mercy, will watch over us as we begin this special journey on
the day her miraculous life began. Embracing mercy, we will make our way to the
feast day of her Son, “King of the Universe and living face of the Father’s
mercy,” next November at the conclusion of the Year of Mercy.
How
does one go about celebrating, accepting, and acting on God’s mercy during the
Year of Mercy? I picked out one particular remark from Pope Francis’ announcement of the Year of Mercy that helps me to think about this Jubilee in concrete
terms:
“We are
called to look beyond, to focus on the heart in order to see how much
generosity everyone is capable of. No one can be excluded from the mercy of
God; everyone knows the way to access it and the Church is the house where
everyone is welcomed and no one is rejected. Her doors remain wide open, so
that those who are touched by grace may find the assurance of forgiveness.”
The Year of Mercy, then:
- Calls us to look outside ourselves
- Focuses on the heart
- Encourages full generosity
- Excludes no one
- Involves wide open doors
- Is all about the assurance of forgiveness through God's grace
The
mercy Pope Francis refers to here is two-fold. First, in a special way this
year, we acknowledge God’s mercy in
our lives by repenting and by seeking his endlessly merciful forgiveness. Pope
Francis calls for the worldwide community to revive our personal relationships
with our Father by seeking His forgiveness and trusting in His mercy. Second,
the Year of Mercy extends beyond our relationships with God to our
relationships with one another: to our
own mercy. We are called, this year, to act mercifully and generously to
our worldwide community.
I
find this twofold focus on mercy to be beautifully represented by the opening
of Holy Doors during this Year of Mercy.
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| Image from www.telegraph.co.uk |
Consider
your daily routine: how many times do you pass under archways and doors? I
would bet lots. Each time I enter or exit some place in which I have been
dwelling, the passage under a door both alters my internal disposition and my
outer environment. When I leave my dorm room in the morning, I pass from my
room into the hallway and then out onto a quad. When I enter a classroom
building, I exit the outdoors and enter a throng of twenty-somethings all
filing into separate rooms through doors that represent thresholds of learning.
When I enter South Dining Hall, I become excited for good food and company.
When I enter a chapel, I automatically assume a greater disposition of
prayerful inner peace. Doors are useful because they help us to achieve a
greater sense of privacy. Doors allow for adjacent rooms to have completely
different aesthetics. Doors are thresholds that change, or at least affect, us
and our environments.
Pope Francis opened a special Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome today. Starting on December 13th, additional Holy Doors will be opened in Catholic churches around the world that will remain open throughout the Year of Mercy. Making pilgrimages through
these doors represents both a change in our own selves and a change in our
orientation towards the world.
The
change in our selves involves the act of seeking, accepting, and offering
gratitude for the working of God’s mercy
in our lives. While ordinary doors in our lives change our dispositions as we
enter different spaces, these Holy Doors are meant to re-invigorate our
understanding of God’s gracious mercy at work. We reach out to God in humility
and repentance, and joyfully accept the mercy waiting there.
The
change in our orientation towards the world brings our own mercy into play. While ordinary doors alter our locations
in the world, passage through Holy Doors during the Year of Mercy is meant to
spur us on to greater generosity through works of mercy. Holy Doors will
literally change the environment of the world by making it a more merciful
place.
When
faithful all over the world enter through Holy Doors during this special year,
our inner and outer selves will be changed by mercy because of God's grace. The world, too, will
change: the Holy Doors are an image of
the open disposition Pope Francis calls us to embrace during this Extraordinary
Jubilee. Recently I have had many conversations with people on and off campus
about the extremely tumultuous world we live in. Why is there such widespread
discord and misunderstanding? How does one begin to process it all? How can I
act? I have found an answer in Pope Francis’ declaration of this Year of Mercy:
by allowing myself to be changed in both of the ways the Holy Doors call me to
be, by celebrating, accepting, and acting on God’s mercy, I will contribute in
a significant way to a greater peace in this world through my life and through
my disposition towards other lives.
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| Image from ndtv.com |
See here for information on the opening of the main door of the Basilica of the Sacred
Heart as a Holy Door during this Jubilee, which will occur on December 13th.
