The Holy Father granted an interview to Credere - the official magazine of the Jubilee of Mercy.
1. Holy Father, now that we are about to enter into the heart of the Jubilee, can you explain the thinking that motivated you to choose the theme of mercy? What urgency brought on this decision, some aspects of the current situation in the world and in the Church?
The theme of mercy has been accented strongly in the Church beginning with Paul VI. John Paul II strongly supported this theme with Dives in misericordia, the canonization of Saint Faustina and the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy within the Octave of Easter. Along the same lines, I felt that there is a desire for God to demonstrate his mercy to all men and women. It is not something that came to my mind, but rather something that is part of the relatively recent tradition, even though it has always existed ... and I realized that it was important that we should do something to continue the tradition.
My first Angelus as Pope focused on God's mercy and on that occasion, and on that occasion, I also spoke about a book on mercy that had been given to me by Cardinal Walter Kasper during the Conclave; also, in my first homily as Pope, on Sunday, March 17 in the parish of Saint Ann, I spoke about mercy. It was not a strategy, it came to me from within: the Holy Spirit wanted it this way. It is obvious that the world today needs mercy, needs compassion, that is: to suffer with. We have become accustomed to bad news, cruel news and the greatest of atrocities which offend the name and the life of God. The world needs to discover that God is a Father, who is merciful, that cruelty is not the right way, that condemnation is not the right way; even the Church herself sometimes follows a hard line, is tempted to follow a hard line, tempted only to emphasize moral standards, but how many people are left out!
In my mind, I saw an image of the Church as a field hospital after a battle; it's true, there are many people who are wounded and destroyed! The wounded are cared for, helped to heal, not subjected to more tests for cholesterol. I believe that this is the moment for mercy. We are all sinners, we all carry interior weights. I felt that Jesus wants to open the door of his heart, that the Father wants to show us his merciful heart, and this was the reason why he sent us the Spirit: to move us, to draw us closer to him. This is a year of forgiveness, a year of reconciliation. On one level we see the arms trade, the production of arms that kill, the assassination of the innocent in the most cruel ways possible, the exploitation of people, of minors, of children: putting into place - permit me the use of the word - a sacrilege against humanity, because humanity is sacred, created int he image of the living God. The Father says: stop and come to me. This is what I'm seeing in the world.
2. You said that, like all believers, you feel that you are a sinner, in need of God's mercy. What importance has divine mercy had in your journey as a priest, as a bishop? Can you remember a particular moment in your life when you especially felt the merciful gaze of the Lord?
I am a sinner, I feel that I am a sinner, I am sure that I am; I am a sinner who has been looked upon by the Lord with mercy. I am, as I said to the prisoners in Bolivia, a forgiven man. I am a forgiven man, God has looked with mercy upon me and has forgiven me. Even now, I make mistakes and commit sin, and I go to confession every fifteen or twenty days. If I must confess, it's because I need to feel that God's mercy is still upon me.
I remember - I have said it many times - when the Lord looked upon me with mercy. I have always had the sensation he was taking care of me in a special way, but the most significant moment was on September 21, 1953, when I was 17 years old. It was a holiday for all the students in Argentina, and I spent it with other students; I was a practicing Catholic, going to Mass on Sundays, but nothing more ... I was part of Catholic Action, but I didn't do anything, I was only a practicing Catholic. Along the way to the railway station in Flores, I passed near to the parish church that I used to go to and I felt driven to enter: I entered and saw coming toward me a priest that I did not know. At that moment, I don't know what happened to me, but I felt the need to confess, in the first confessional on the left - many people were going to pray there. I don't know what happened, I came out different, changed. I went home with a certainty that I would dedicate myself to the Lord and this priest helped me for almost a year. He was a priest from Corrientes, Father CArlos Benito Duarte Ibarra, who lived at the Casa del Clero in Flores. He had leukemia and was being cared for in hospital. He died one year later. After the funeral, I cried bitterly; I felt totally lost, as though gripped by the fear that God had abandoned me.
That was the moment when I came to know the mercy of God and it is very closely tied to my Episcopal motto: September 21 is the feast day of Saint Matthew, and Bede the Venerable, speaking the conversion of Matthew, said that Jesus, looked at Matthew miserando atqui eligendo. It is an expression that cannot be translated, because in Italian one of the two verbs has a gerund, even in Spanish. The literal translation would be merciful and choosing, almost as though it were a craft. Merciful, this is the literal translation of the text. Years later, while praying the breviary in Latin, I found this reading, and I realized that the Lord had formed me (modeled me) with His mercy. Every time that I came to Rome, since I would stay on the via della Scrofa, I would go to the Church of Saint Louis of France and pray in front of Caravaggio's picture, the one called Matthew's Calling.
3. According to the Bible, the dwelling place of God's mercy is in the womb, the maternal womb of God which is so moved, even to the point of forgiving us of our sins. Can the Jubilee of mercy can be an occasion for re-discovering God's maternity? Is this also a feminine aspect of the Church which is to be valued?
Yes. He himself affirmed this when he said through the words of the prophet Isaiah that even if a mother should forget her baby, even a mother can forget ... I however will never forget you. Here we see the maternal dimension of God. Not everyone will understand what we mean by the maternity of God, this is not a very popular language - in the good sense of the word - it seems like an elite language, so I prefer to use the word tenderness, the tenderness of a mother, the tenderness of God, the tenderness that is born of a paternal heart. God is both father and mother.
4. Mercy, if we refer to the Bible, makes it possible for us to know God more on the level of emotion than we can in conversation or in images. We can discover a God who is so emotional and interested in us that we can even change our attitudes toward our brothers and sisters.
This discovery leads us to have more tolerant approaches, to be more patient, more tender. In 1994, during the Synod, during a group meeting, we were saying that we needed to revolutionize tenderness, and one of the synod Fathers - a good man, who I respect and love - who was already elderly, told me that it was not good to use that kind of language and he gave me a reasonable explanation, from an intelligent man, but I continue to say that today, the revolution is tenderness because from tenderness we derive justice and all the rest. If an entrepreneur hires a worker from September to July, I told him, this is not right because he sends that person on holidays in July and then starts another contract from September to July, and in that way, the labourer has no right to any allowance or pension or social assistance. Such workers have no rights. An entrepreneur like that does not demonstrate tenderness, but treats the worker like an object - so as to give an example of the lack of tenderness. If we put ourselves in that person's shoes, instead of thinking about putting money in their own pockets, things can change. The revolution of tenderness is that which we have to cultivate as the fruit of this year of mercy: the tenderness of God toward each one of us. Every one of us has to say: I am a sinner, but God loves me so much, even I can love another person in this way.
5. Pope John XXIII's 'moonlight speech' is famous, the night when he greeted the faithful, saying: 'Give your children a hug'. This image has become an icon of the Church of tenderness. In what way can the theme of mercy help our Christian communities to be converted and renewed?
When I see the sick, the elderly, I spontaneously think about hugs ... A hug is a gesture that can be interpreted ambiguously, but it is the first thing that a mother or a father will do for his or her child, immediately after it is born, a gesture that says I love you, I want you to be all that you can be.
6. Can you tell us about a gesture that you intend to do during the Jubilee as a witness to God's mercy?
There will be many gestures, but one Friday out of every month, there will be a different gesture.
Interview granted by the Holy Father, Pope Francis
to Credere
1. Holy Father, now that we are about to enter into the heart of the Jubilee, can you explain the thinking that motivated you to choose the theme of mercy? What urgency brought on this decision, some aspects of the current situation in the world and in the Church?
The theme of mercy has been accented strongly in the Church beginning with Paul VI. John Paul II strongly supported this theme with Dives in misericordia, the canonization of Saint Faustina and the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy within the Octave of Easter. Along the same lines, I felt that there is a desire for God to demonstrate his mercy to all men and women. It is not something that came to my mind, but rather something that is part of the relatively recent tradition, even though it has always existed ... and I realized that it was important that we should do something to continue the tradition.
My first Angelus as Pope focused on God's mercy and on that occasion, and on that occasion, I also spoke about a book on mercy that had been given to me by Cardinal Walter Kasper during the Conclave; also, in my first homily as Pope, on Sunday, March 17 in the parish of Saint Ann, I spoke about mercy. It was not a strategy, it came to me from within: the Holy Spirit wanted it this way. It is obvious that the world today needs mercy, needs compassion, that is: to suffer with. We have become accustomed to bad news, cruel news and the greatest of atrocities which offend the name and the life of God. The world needs to discover that God is a Father, who is merciful, that cruelty is not the right way, that condemnation is not the right way; even the Church herself sometimes follows a hard line, is tempted to follow a hard line, tempted only to emphasize moral standards, but how many people are left out!
In my mind, I saw an image of the Church as a field hospital after a battle; it's true, there are many people who are wounded and destroyed! The wounded are cared for, helped to heal, not subjected to more tests for cholesterol. I believe that this is the moment for mercy. We are all sinners, we all carry interior weights. I felt that Jesus wants to open the door of his heart, that the Father wants to show us his merciful heart, and this was the reason why he sent us the Spirit: to move us, to draw us closer to him. This is a year of forgiveness, a year of reconciliation. On one level we see the arms trade, the production of arms that kill, the assassination of the innocent in the most cruel ways possible, the exploitation of people, of minors, of children: putting into place - permit me the use of the word - a sacrilege against humanity, because humanity is sacred, created int he image of the living God. The Father says: stop and come to me. This is what I'm seeing in the world.
2. You said that, like all believers, you feel that you are a sinner, in need of God's mercy. What importance has divine mercy had in your journey as a priest, as a bishop? Can you remember a particular moment in your life when you especially felt the merciful gaze of the Lord?
I am a sinner, I feel that I am a sinner, I am sure that I am; I am a sinner who has been looked upon by the Lord with mercy. I am, as I said to the prisoners in Bolivia, a forgiven man. I am a forgiven man, God has looked with mercy upon me and has forgiven me. Even now, I make mistakes and commit sin, and I go to confession every fifteen or twenty days. If I must confess, it's because I need to feel that God's mercy is still upon me.
I remember - I have said it many times - when the Lord looked upon me with mercy. I have always had the sensation he was taking care of me in a special way, but the most significant moment was on September 21, 1953, when I was 17 years old. It was a holiday for all the students in Argentina, and I spent it with other students; I was a practicing Catholic, going to Mass on Sundays, but nothing more ... I was part of Catholic Action, but I didn't do anything, I was only a practicing Catholic. Along the way to the railway station in Flores, I passed near to the parish church that I used to go to and I felt driven to enter: I entered and saw coming toward me a priest that I did not know. At that moment, I don't know what happened to me, but I felt the need to confess, in the first confessional on the left - many people were going to pray there. I don't know what happened, I came out different, changed. I went home with a certainty that I would dedicate myself to the Lord and this priest helped me for almost a year. He was a priest from Corrientes, Father CArlos Benito Duarte Ibarra, who lived at the Casa del Clero in Flores. He had leukemia and was being cared for in hospital. He died one year later. After the funeral, I cried bitterly; I felt totally lost, as though gripped by the fear that God had abandoned me.
That was the moment when I came to know the mercy of God and it is very closely tied to my Episcopal motto: September 21 is the feast day of Saint Matthew, and Bede the Venerable, speaking the conversion of Matthew, said that Jesus, looked at Matthew miserando atqui eligendo. It is an expression that cannot be translated, because in Italian one of the two verbs has a gerund, even in Spanish. The literal translation would be merciful and choosing, almost as though it were a craft. Merciful, this is the literal translation of the text. Years later, while praying the breviary in Latin, I found this reading, and I realized that the Lord had formed me (modeled me) with His mercy. Every time that I came to Rome, since I would stay on the via della Scrofa, I would go to the Church of Saint Louis of France and pray in front of Caravaggio's picture, the one called Matthew's Calling.
3. According to the Bible, the dwelling place of God's mercy is in the womb, the maternal womb of God which is so moved, even to the point of forgiving us of our sins. Can the Jubilee of mercy can be an occasion for re-discovering God's maternity? Is this also a feminine aspect of the Church which is to be valued?
Yes. He himself affirmed this when he said through the words of the prophet Isaiah that even if a mother should forget her baby, even a mother can forget ... I however will never forget you. Here we see the maternal dimension of God. Not everyone will understand what we mean by the maternity of God, this is not a very popular language - in the good sense of the word - it seems like an elite language, so I prefer to use the word tenderness, the tenderness of a mother, the tenderness of God, the tenderness that is born of a paternal heart. God is both father and mother.
4. Mercy, if we refer to the Bible, makes it possible for us to know God more on the level of emotion than we can in conversation or in images. We can discover a God who is so emotional and interested in us that we can even change our attitudes toward our brothers and sisters.
This discovery leads us to have more tolerant approaches, to be more patient, more tender. In 1994, during the Synod, during a group meeting, we were saying that we needed to revolutionize tenderness, and one of the synod Fathers - a good man, who I respect and love - who was already elderly, told me that it was not good to use that kind of language and he gave me a reasonable explanation, from an intelligent man, but I continue to say that today, the revolution is tenderness because from tenderness we derive justice and all the rest. If an entrepreneur hires a worker from September to July, I told him, this is not right because he sends that person on holidays in July and then starts another contract from September to July, and in that way, the labourer has no right to any allowance or pension or social assistance. Such workers have no rights. An entrepreneur like that does not demonstrate tenderness, but treats the worker like an object - so as to give an example of the lack of tenderness. If we put ourselves in that person's shoes, instead of thinking about putting money in their own pockets, things can change. The revolution of tenderness is that which we have to cultivate as the fruit of this year of mercy: the tenderness of God toward each one of us. Every one of us has to say: I am a sinner, but God loves me so much, even I can love another person in this way.
5. Pope John XXIII's 'moonlight speech' is famous, the night when he greeted the faithful, saying: 'Give your children a hug'. This image has become an icon of the Church of tenderness. In what way can the theme of mercy help our Christian communities to be converted and renewed?
When I see the sick, the elderly, I spontaneously think about hugs ... A hug is a gesture that can be interpreted ambiguously, but it is the first thing that a mother or a father will do for his or her child, immediately after it is born, a gesture that says I love you, I want you to be all that you can be.
6. Can you tell us about a gesture that you intend to do during the Jubilee as a witness to God's mercy?
There will be many gestures, but one Friday out of every month, there will be a different gesture.
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