The Year of Mercy

The Jubilee Year of Mercy, as announced by Pope Francis is upon us.  The year begins this Tuesday, December 8, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and closes on November 20, 2016, on the Solemnity of Christ the King.

Jubilee years were observed by our Jewish ancestors every 50 years.  They were periods of forgiveness, when debts were pardoned and slaves were freed.

This Year of Mercy is also being used to encourage acts of reconciliation, solidarity and justice.   The Pope is offering indulgences--forgiveness of sin--to anyone who performs one of the traditional Spiritual or Corporal Works of Mercy.  “I have asked the Church in this Jubilee Year to rediscover the richness encompassed by the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy,” the Pope wrote.

The works of mercy are acts of forgiveness and charity.   The Corporal Works of Mercy concern the material needs of others:

Corporal Works of Mercy

Feed the hungry

Give drink to the thirsty

Clothe the naked

Shelter the homeless

Visit the sick

Visit the imprisoned

Bury the dead.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy concern the spiritual needs of others:

Spiritual Works of Mercy

Instruct the ignorant

Counsel the doubtful

Admonish sinners

Bear wrongs patiently

Forgive offences willingly

Comfort the afflicted

Pray for the living and the dead.

Depictions of both the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy will hang in the narthex at St. Thomas Aquinas to remind us to practice acts of mercy at home, at school, at work, at church—wherever we are.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Year of Mercy begins on the 50th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council, and the issuing of its final document Gaudium et Spes, The Church in the World.  Let us pray that this Year of Mercy renews our baptismal call to be signs of God’s mercy in the world.