The 14th National meeting of Manos abiertas (Enma), a Christian organization of volunteers which began in 1992 in Villa de Mayo, near Buenos Aires (Argentina) under the direction of Father Ángel Rossi, SJ is taking place this week in Santa Fe (Argentina). The motto of Manos abiertas is To love and to serve and the theme for this week's encounter is Mercy: a journey from the heart to the hands.
Dear friends of Manos Abiertas,
You are gathered for this National Meeting which has as its theme: Mercy, a voyage from the heart to the hands. Let us take two passages from the gospel. When the Good Samaritan meets a man on the street, the gospel tells us that he has heart-felt compassion, and afterward: He dismounted from his horse, touched him and healed him. Heartfelt compassion led him to do something with his hands. Another scene in the gospel speaks about Jesus, at the entrance to the city of Nain where he sees a funeral procession taking place: the funeral of a young man whose mother is a widow, and the mother is following along behind. Jesus has compassion for this woman who is alone, draws close to her and says: 'Don't cry', and his hands begin to act. Having touched the bier, he says: 'Young man, rise!'. A journey of heart and hands. This is how Jesus is, how he teaches in the gospel: to act, but to act from the heart.
The heart, the heart of the Good Samaritan and the heart of Jesus were both touched by suffering: the suffering that they encountered, the suffering of a widowed mother that Jesus encountered, the suffering of great pain, and the suffering of the man who the Samaritan encountered. The heart unites itself with the suffering of others and this is where mercy is born. When the suffering of others enters into my heart, I experience mercy, which is not the same thing as feeling sorry for them, this is something else. I can feel sorry for a wounded animal or for a certain situation, but mercy is something else: when I feel sorry for someone else, or for a situation of suffering or of suffering, it weighs on the heart and I allow this suffering to touch my heart. I would say: it is the journey of going out, the journey of heart-felt suffering. This is the journey: there can be no mercy if the encounter does not begin in the heart, a heart that is wounded by the suffering of others, by a painful situation encountered, by a hear that allows itself to be wounded.
This is different from having good intentions. That is not mercy, those are good intentions. It is different from being philanthropic with your hands, this is not mercy. It is good, it is good, it is good, philanthropy is not bad, but it is not mercy, it's something else. Mercy is the journey that travels from the suffering in my heart, weighed on my heart, that moves my heart and sometimes even moves me to the point where my heart is like a compass that points to the North Pole, that doesn't know where to stop because of what it is feeling.
Surely, someone among you might ask me: Father, how can we be sure that this is mercy and not just suffering? Well, first we must ask for the grace to be merciful. It is a grace and we need to ask the Lord to grant it to us. The only path, though, in order to be merciful is through our own sin recognized by us ourselves as being forgiven by the Lord; through sin that is admitted to and forgiven. We can only be merciful if we have truly encountered the Lord's mercy, otherwise, we can never be merciful. If you feel that your sin is taken away, forgiven, forgotten by God, you have received mercy, and the reason why we receive mercy is so that we in turn can be merciful. If mercy does not begin in your own heart, you cannot be merciful.
This is where the return journey begins. If the purpose of the journey of going out was to allow my heart to be wounded through the suffering of others, the journey of my heart is meant to help me recognize my sin, my suffering, my self abasement and to know what it means to be forgiven, to encounter the mercy of the Lord; only then can the return journey begin, the journey from the heart to the hands. This is how our journey goes: from our suffering which has received mercy, to the suffering of others; from my suffering, loved by God, to the love of the mercy of others; from my own suffering to knowing that I am loved and therefore able to express this love through the acts of my hands. This is mercy: Mercy is a voyage from the heart to the hands. What should I do? Open my hands or my heart? Both. It's enough to know that suffering wounds your heart, the hearts of others and your own heart too. It's enough to allow yourself to receive mercy and to begin the return journey, and with your hands filled with mercy for the sake of others, spreading mercy and love.
May God bless you and make your meeting fruitful for the sake of the entire Manos Abiertas community. Please, don't forget to pray for me.
(Original text in Spanish)
Video message of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to the participants taking part in the
Manos abiertas national meeting (Santa Fe, Argentina)
Dear friends of Manos Abiertas,
You are gathered for this National Meeting which has as its theme: Mercy, a voyage from the heart to the hands. Let us take two passages from the gospel. When the Good Samaritan meets a man on the street, the gospel tells us that he has heart-felt compassion, and afterward: He dismounted from his horse, touched him and healed him. Heartfelt compassion led him to do something with his hands. Another scene in the gospel speaks about Jesus, at the entrance to the city of Nain where he sees a funeral procession taking place: the funeral of a young man whose mother is a widow, and the mother is following along behind. Jesus has compassion for this woman who is alone, draws close to her and says: 'Don't cry', and his hands begin to act. Having touched the bier, he says: 'Young man, rise!'. A journey of heart and hands. This is how Jesus is, how he teaches in the gospel: to act, but to act from the heart.
The heart, the heart of the Good Samaritan and the heart of Jesus were both touched by suffering: the suffering that they encountered, the suffering of a widowed mother that Jesus encountered, the suffering of great pain, and the suffering of the man who the Samaritan encountered. The heart unites itself with the suffering of others and this is where mercy is born. When the suffering of others enters into my heart, I experience mercy, which is not the same thing as feeling sorry for them, this is something else. I can feel sorry for a wounded animal or for a certain situation, but mercy is something else: when I feel sorry for someone else, or for a situation of suffering or of suffering, it weighs on the heart and I allow this suffering to touch my heart. I would say: it is the journey of going out, the journey of heart-felt suffering. This is the journey: there can be no mercy if the encounter does not begin in the heart, a heart that is wounded by the suffering of others, by a painful situation encountered, by a hear that allows itself to be wounded.
This is different from having good intentions. That is not mercy, those are good intentions. It is different from being philanthropic with your hands, this is not mercy. It is good, it is good, it is good, philanthropy is not bad, but it is not mercy, it's something else. Mercy is the journey that travels from the suffering in my heart, weighed on my heart, that moves my heart and sometimes even moves me to the point where my heart is like a compass that points to the North Pole, that doesn't know where to stop because of what it is feeling.
Surely, someone among you might ask me: Father, how can we be sure that this is mercy and not just suffering? Well, first we must ask for the grace to be merciful. It is a grace and we need to ask the Lord to grant it to us. The only path, though, in order to be merciful is through our own sin recognized by us ourselves as being forgiven by the Lord; through sin that is admitted to and forgiven. We can only be merciful if we have truly encountered the Lord's mercy, otherwise, we can never be merciful. If you feel that your sin is taken away, forgiven, forgotten by God, you have received mercy, and the reason why we receive mercy is so that we in turn can be merciful. If mercy does not begin in your own heart, you cannot be merciful.
This is where the return journey begins. If the purpose of the journey of going out was to allow my heart to be wounded through the suffering of others, the journey of my heart is meant to help me recognize my sin, my suffering, my self abasement and to know what it means to be forgiven, to encounter the mercy of the Lord; only then can the return journey begin, the journey from the heart to the hands. This is how our journey goes: from our suffering which has received mercy, to the suffering of others; from my suffering, loved by God, to the love of the mercy of others; from my own suffering to knowing that I am loved and therefore able to express this love through the acts of my hands. This is mercy: Mercy is a voyage from the heart to the hands. What should I do? Open my hands or my heart? Both. It's enough to know that suffering wounds your heart, the hearts of others and your own heart too. It's enough to allow yourself to receive mercy and to begin the return journey, and with your hands filled with mercy for the sake of others, spreading mercy and love.
May God bless you and make your meeting fruitful for the sake of the entire Manos Abiertas community. Please, don't forget to pray for me.
(Original text in Spanish)
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