The Face of Mercy
Pope Francis in the beginning of his papal letter on mercy states that, “Jesus is the visible face of God’s mercy.” This Advent I have been reflecting and reading about what that really means. Pope Francis has designated from December 8 th – November 20 th 2016 the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. To me this begs the question what is mercy? A few months ago I had a traumatic encounter with someone who publically insulted and lied about me. I was very hurt that this person would think that way about me. Yet I knew that mercy called me to love and more importantly forgive that person; not only for their sake, but for my own sake. So that I could be completely free of the hurt that it had caused within me. With the help of the Holy Spirit I am still working on forgiving that person. My way of dealing with the pain was to pity the person. I had thought that pity was being merciful; feeling sorry for the person becaus...