Francis week by week (5) •
This week’s quotation is from the Holy Father’s Mass in the fairgrounds of Ciudad Juárez, just 80 metres from the United States border on 17 February 2016. (Full text)
This week, let us read and listen to the message to the Mexicans as if spoken to us, a Movement that with holy pride experiences the grace of inner transformation in its shrines and in its missionary, educational and pastoral actions, works for the transformation of men and society “from within.”
Acting as living shrines, let us reflect on the challenge of drawing closer to any situation so as to transform it from within.
Mercy, which always rejects wickedness, takes the human person in great earnest. Mercy always appeals to the goodness of each person, even though it be dormant and numbed. Far from bringing destruction, as we so often desire or want to bring about ourselves, mercy seeks to transform each situation from within. Herein lies the mystery of divine mercy. It seeks and invites us to conversion, it invites us to repentance; it invites us to see the damage being done at every level. Mercy always pierces evil in order to transform it. It is the mystery of God our Father: he sends his Son who pierced into what was evil, he took on sin in order to transform evil. This is his mercy.
(…)
there is always the possibility of change, we still have time to transform what is destroying us as a people, what is demeaning our humanity. Mercy encourages us to look to the present, and to trust what is healthy and good beating in every heart. God’s mercy is our shield and our strength.”
Let us reflect on this message based on what we know about Fr. Kentenich.
What is Francis saying to me, what does he say to us to us as parents, as people involved in pastoral activities at the shrine, as citizens watching the refugee and immigrant crisis, situations of injustice, indifference, mis-encounters?
What do I say in response?
What answer do I give Francis, in covenant solidary?
We invite you to share your thoughts because we believe that God speaks to us through Francis.
We invite you to enter into dialogue with Francis, a dialogue that creates encounter, a culture of encounter, which is a covenant culture.
We invite you and open this space to enter into dialogue, by leaving your responses in the comment section below and by responding to others who have commented.
Original: Spanish. Translation: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Cape Town, South Africa
