Year of Mercy December 8, 2015 November 20, 2016

Seeing the great need for mercy and healing in the world, Pope Francis called for the Year of Mercya

special period, a Jubilee Year, for the Catholic Church.

Photo: Pope Francis at Vargihna" by Tnia Rgo/ABr - Agncia Brasil. Creative Commons

It is a time for us to focus on mercy, forgiveness, and

healing in a special way.

We, as Vincentians, can and must be witnesses of

mercy.

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Bartolom Esteban Murillo (16171682)

Mercy was the motivating factor behind all of Saint Vincent de Pauls charitable activity.

Photo by daryl_mitchell from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, via Wikimedia Commons

In reflecting on Vincent de Paul and mercy, let us

use the imagery of the Holy Door, one of the

most powerful signs of the Jubilee.

Every Christian is called to pass through the door from sin to grace.

Every believer is responsible to cross its threshold. We are free to choose it. It requires the courage

to leave something behind, in order to gain divine life.

What doors did St. Vincent and his collaborators

choose to open?

St. Vincent, together with the Ladies of Charity, rescued

babies who were abandoned at church doors or at the

entrances to hospitals; the Daughters of Charity helped

raise and educate them

Why? out of mercy since society considered them as children of sin,

children of adultery, of rape; unplanned, unwanted

The Daughters of Charity carried the soup pot through the city, and cared for sick prisoners who sometimes

became violent towards them

Why? out of mercy if there was violence, it was because they were suffering

Vincent visited the galleys and showed great zeal in preaching

missionary style to the prisoners, who were as

distanced from God as they were abandoned by men.

Why? out of mercy to take the side of those who were living in misery

The Confraternities of Charity, composed of women, were set up in the places where Vincents priests

gave missions. They assisted the sick poor by doing extremely unpleasant jobs such as: bloodlettings, which

were thought to cure disease; preparing and giving enemas;

dressing wounds; changing bed linens and watching at night over the sick who were alone and near death

Why? out of mercy, out of compassion for the sick

Besides these corporal services, they tried to

contribute to their spiritual welfare

(CCD:II:600, 602)

Why? out of mercy they clothed themselves in the spirit of Jesus Christ and

thus revealed the merciful Father in everything that they did

Our Little Company is established to go from village to

village at its own expense, preaching, catechizing, and

having the poor people make general confessions of their

entire past life. (CCD:I:553)

Why? out of mercy Vincents ministry revealed what the Son of God did in the name of the Father in order to reveal the

Father the Father is a good Father, filled with mercy, one who is profoundly moved

by all his children

Vincent met with Frances Chief Minister, Cardinal

Richelieu, and asked him to stop the war.

Why? out of mercy to defend victims of war, to prevent them from being forgotten

or marginalized

Vincent publicly and radically opposed the exploitive policies of

Cardinal Mazarin. He crossed battle lines and forged an overflowing river in order to see the Queen to ask her to remove Mazarin from office. (This

was when Vincent was almost seventy years old!)

Why did he do this? out of mercy the people who were suffering did not

deserve to be punished. To respond with true mercy we must

penetrate the mechanisms that produce poverty, marginalization and exclusion.

We are unable to go and give missions in the rural areas because

the poor people are so scattered [] driven from their homes by fear of

being mistreated by the soldiers --- so we have decided to give them to the people who have taken refuge in Paris. [] One of our men has also gone to open the mission for the refugees at Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet (CCD:IV:398-399)

Why? out of mercy for refugees

Vincent was equally concerned about looking

for ways to reform the clergy.

Why? out of mercy for the people

From the time that Madame de Gondi alerted him about the ignorance of the clergy, he felt a heavy weight upon his shoulders because to Vincent, the peoples ignorance and sin were

not always their own fault; he believed that the people were a reflection of their priest.

Vincent never criticized those who were poor

but saw them as victims and therefore not responsible for

their misery.Why? out of mercy and in

humility we are all in need of forgiveness

Vincent promoted the poor and helped them become aware of their

dignity, and that they must be the primary agents of their own development.

Why? because mercy and compassion pushed him to go further beyond their simply surviving, towards real growth

and transformation

Vincent felt it necessary to know the reality of the poor; to experience their

physical condition; to understand their situation

as human beings.Why? out of mercy

so that those persons who are excluded from participation in society

would feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God.

Vincents example leads us into action.

As Vincentians today,

we must:

respond to all the needs that are presented

to us

seek out those who are the poorest and

most abandoned

move from village to village as Jesus did, drawing near to and affirming those who are poor and infirm

give help in such a way that the recipients may gradually be freed from dependence on

outsiders and become self-sufficient

so they can in turn go and do likewise to others

Mercy as Christ has presented it in the parable of the prodigal son has the interior form of the love that in the New Testament is called agape. This love is able to reach down to every

prodigal son, to every human misery, and above all to every form of moral

misery, to sin. When this happens, the person who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather found again and "restored to value"

(John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia, #6)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills

hope (Misericordiae Vultus, No. 3).

Pope Francis, referring to the Door of Mercy

Photo: Hijas de la Caridad-Pastoral Vocacional Facebook Page

Let us keep the spirit of Saint

Vincent de Paul alive in this

Year of Mercy.

Let us always leave open the door that leads to mercy and

hope!

presented by: