Pastor's Pen - February 7, 2016

Merciful Like the Father: Pope Francis tells us that this special Year is a time “to bear the weakness and struggles of our brothers and sisters” (MV 10), an occasion to “open our eyes and see the misery of the world, the wounds of our brothers and sisters” (MV15). We can do so when we recall how much God looked upon our own wounds and misery with untellable, unlimited love and mercy. Let us pray for the grace to be effective signs of the Father’s mercy to others. (from Magnificat: Year of Mercy Companion)

The month of February is devoted to the corporal Work of Mercy Feed the Hungry.

And one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? (James 2:16)

“I was hungry and you gave me food” (Mt 25:35) Nothing but the literal meaning of these words should be accepted. This statement may shock us, and yet a deep conviction in faith that Christ himself is present in the poor must be our primary motive in performing the corporal Work of Mercy. Any interpretation of Matthew 25 and the corporal works that would diminish or dilute Jesus’ words reducing them to symbolic evocations, contradicts his own clear statements. It is he whom we feed in the poor.

That is how saints understood all the corporal Works of Mercy. Mother Teresa is a contemporary example: “We should not serve the poor like they were Jesus. We should serve the poor because they are Jesus.” In giving food to the hungry, whether we realize it or not, we place ourselves before the concealed presence of Christ himself, who has chose to become one with the poor. The action directed to a real human person is always, inseparably, also touching a hidden but real presence of Christ himself.

(Father Donald Haggerty in the Magnificat: Year of Mercy Companion) MV – Misericordiae Vultus

Fr. Chuck