MOSAIC Spring 2016 | Page 5

MERCIFUL LIKE THE FATHER

Pope Francis asks us to return to the
Sacrament of Reconciliation, particularly in
conjunction with fulfilling the requirements
of the Year of Mercy indulgence.
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Through this “most intimate co-operation of the Holy Spirit and the Church”
(CCC, no. 1108), Christ truly makes
himself present to believers under the
veil of perceptible signs—the Sacraments.
As she celebrates these signs in fidelity
to her Spouse who gave them to her, the
Church is continually renewed and rejuvenated by his love (cf. Zep. 3:17). “In the
liturgy of the New Covenant every liturgical
action, especially the celebration of the
Eucharist and the Sacraments, is an encounter between Christ and the Church”
(CCC, no. 1097).
Again and again, until Jesus comes (1
Cor 11:26), the Bride is able to recline
peacefully on the breast of her Savior, as
did the beloved disciple at the Last Supper (Jn 13:23), and to drink freely from
the flow of living water at its wellspring
(cf. Jn 7:37; Rv 22:17b).

Super-abundant Grace
As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at
the well, so he says to everyone: “If you recognized the gift of God and who it is that
is asking you for something to drink, you
would have asked him and he would have
given you living water” (Jn 4:10). But tragically, we live in a time when a majority of
those dwelling in the materially developed
and formerly Christian nations, including
the greater portion of those who identify
themselves as Catholic Christians, have
recognized neither the gift nor the Giver;
hence their response to the Sacraments is
largely one of indifference.
As disciples of the Risen One, sent forth
to baptize all nations (Mt 28:19), we Catholics are not at liberty to accept the status
quo. Our own baptismal identity (not to
mention the Magisterium of all the recent
popes) impels us to find new ways of breaking through the haze of cultural apathy
and inviting all people to a life-changing
encounter with the Lord.
In the context of the New Evangelization, then, we must endeavor to change
the perception that outsiders have of our
Sacraments. Far from being unintelligible,
archaic rituals, these are living and active
channels of God’s super-abundant grace,
leading to a fullness of life (see Jn 10:10).
Each celebration of a Sacrament is an encounter with the mercy that all persons
desperately need, whether they are conscious of it or not.
Blood and the Water
First, however, it may often be necessary
in our conversations with postmodern people to overcome a false conception of mercy. When Christians affirm that the love
of God toward mankind is merciful, we do
not mean that love ignores or excuses sin.
We mean that this love has the character of
an undeserved response by the All-holy One
to the unholiness of man.
Christ did not find his Bride spotless
and unblemished; he first had to “[give]
himself up for her in order to sanctify her
by cleansing her with water and the word”
(Eph 5:25b-26). The Father’s free gift of
mercy required the Son to “[become] obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil

2:8b). For the love of Christ to flow freely
and abundantly upon us, his heart had to
be pierced (Jn 19:34).
The dual flow of blood and water that issued forth from the Savior’s side, in which
the Fathers of the Church saw a prefigurement of Baptism and the Eucharist, is the
only sufficient remedy for the misery of human bondage to sin.
Mercy Must Be Accepted
“Justification follows upon God’s merciful initiative of offering forgiveness.
It reconciles man with God. It frees from
the enslavement to sin, and it heals,” explains the Catholic catechism (no. 1990).
But the merciful offer must be accepted;
the gift must be received. No one can be
reconciled to God, set free, and made
whole without appropriating the grace of
justification through the means that he
himself established, namely, personal repentance, faith, and Baptism (Rom 3:2324; Mk 16:16; Acts 2:38).
God “desires everyone to be saved”
(1 Tim 2:4). Nevertheless, it is equally
true, according to the unequivocal teaching of Jesus, that only those who recognize their need for divine forgiveness by
humbly acknowledging their own sinfulness before God can actually be made
righteous (Lk 18:13-14).
“If we claim that we are sinless, we are
only deceiving ourselves, and the truth is