A Time of Mercy

Pope Francis looks on as priests applaud him during a meeting in Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican March 6, 2014. The pope's annual Lenten meeting with Rome pastors focused on the priest's call to be a minister of mercy. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano)

A Time of Mercy | Fr. James V. Schall, SJ | CWR

Heaven cannot be populated by human beings who refuse to be there, whose lives indicate they do not want to be there

“I am sure of this. It is not only Lent; we have been living in a time of mercy for the past thirty years or more, up to today.” — Pope Francis, Exhortation on Mercy to Roman Priests, March 6, 2014

I.

Every year, during Lent, the current pope meets with the priests of the city of Rome, quite a large gathering. This year the meeting was held in the Paul VI Audience Hall, a very large auditorium. The Pope mentions the faithful to whom pastors must extend “great, great mercy.” This is a charming exhortation. He tells us that Jesus was always “on the road,” once he began his public life. (I am reminded of the famous Willie Nelson song, “On the Road Again.”) The Pope tells us that “Jesus’ life was on the road.” We see Christ’s concern for the crowds and their needs. The Pope insists that priests should get out of the rectory. They should know what goes on in their neighborhood. Once they do, “the horizon broadens, and we see that these towns and villages are not only Rome and Italy; they are the world and those helpless crowds are the peoples of many nations who are suffering through even more difficult situations.” No one ever accused Pope Francis of a narrow vision!

Pope Francis is sober. “We are not here to take part in a pleasant retreat…but rather to hear the voice of the Spirit speaking to the whole Church of our time.” Any place, even Rome, is every place. The Spirit speaks to “the whole Church of our time, which is a time of mercy.” It is interesting that the word “justice” never appears in this exhortation of Francis to the Roman clergy. The Pope adds that we have been living in this “time of mercy” for thirty years, from the time of John Paul II.

Logically, a time of mercy or of grace would mean that era should be otherwise. We are living on borrowed time. Here, Francis recalls the canonization of Sister Faustina Kowalska and the Divine Mercy Sunday that John Paul II began. At that time, John Paul II clarified a most significant doctrine. God, John Paul observed, would forgive everything that could be forgiven. Some things even God could not forgive. What are these? On those men who refused to be forgiven—who reject mercy—God cannot impose His will. He does not wish to undermine genuine free will. To do so, would undermine the whole redemptive order, the whole worth of His free relation to man. Heaven cannot be populated by human beings who refuse to be there, whose lives indicate they do not want to be there.

We have short memories, as Pope Francis tells us. Yet, “we cannot forget the great intuitions and gifts that have been left to the People of God. And Divine Mercy is one of these.”

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