The epiphany of our Lord and the papal visit: Manifestations of mercy

Today, the Feast of the Epiphany officially ends the Christmas season.  Today’s feast — the Lord’s manifestation, and Christmas — the incarnation of the Eternal Word, point to the same mystery: God’s Self-revelation to humankind in the person of Jesus Christ. 

The Infinite becomes finite, the eternal mortal.  The Lord’s incarnation, indeed, seeming foolishness on God’s part, reveals precisely the infinite breadth and depth of God’s mercy and love for the world and humanity.  Only infinite love justifies this infinite condescension of our God.  And the proper response from us, God’s beloved, can only be a return of love.  As the preface of the Christmas liturgy beautifully expresses: “In Him we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see.”

The Papal Visit. Today we thus celebrate God’s manifestation of his love and mercy, which is also the theme of Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines.

The holy father has made known that his primary intention for visiting our country is to comfort and express solidarity with those devastated by Typhoon Yolanda and the Bohol earthquake.  The CBCP writes, “This visit calls to mind what Jesus did as recounted in the Gospel.  In Matthew 9:36, Jesus after “seeing the people, felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

The Church: a place of mercy.  In visiting the Yolanda survivors in Tacloban, Pope Francis is exemplifying his vision of the Church.  In his first Apostolic Exhortation, Pope Francis proclaims that “the Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel” (Evangelii Gaudium, 114).

Why is God’s mercy so central to Pope Francis?  In the same encyclical, he explains: “some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting” (EG, 54).

Because a huge segment of humanity does not partake of the benefits of prevailing economic systems, because the human rights of millions are undermined by many political systems, the Holy Father compels us to be merciful especially toward those in the peripheries.

The definition of God.  Because Pope Francis is primarily our universal pastor, while he has often spoken of and made reference to God’s mercy, he has not written a systematic treatise on it.   According to Fr. Pierre de Charentenay, SJ, former editor of the respected journal Etudes, Pope Francis seems to say that mercy is not simply one among many attributes of God, such as perfection, omnipotence and immutability.  Mercy is the attitude or disposition of God toward humanity.  As such, it is the very definition of God’s stance toward the world, mired in sin and suffering. Mercy defines who God is in relation to us.

Moreover, this disposition of mercy toward the poor and suffering is actualized through various concrete acts.  Hence, in the Gospels, Jesus concretizes divine mercy through particular acts healing particular people, such as Batimaeus (Mark 10:46-52), feeding the hungry ( Mt. 14:13-21), forgiving the sinner, such as the woman caught in adultery (Jn. 8:1-11).  To follow Jesus’ example is to have a heart of mercy and then to act with charity and compassion towards individuals.

A People rich in Mercy.  As we anticipate the visit of Pope Francis, let us heed the words of CBCP President and Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas who explains that the most distinctive way to prepare spiritually for the coming of Pope Francis is for the country to become “a people rich in mercy.”   Fr. Matt Malone, SJ, President & Editor in Chief, America Magazine, beautifully summarizes that for Pope Francis “the goal of Christian faith is not to be right, but to be holy, and that the way to holiness is through a merciful heart, open to God and the world.”