Day 13: March 17, 2014: “Be compassionate, as your heavenly Father is compassionate”. (Luke 6.36)

Day 13:

          

                  March 17, 2014:

            “Be compassionate, as your

heavenly Father is compassionate”. (Luke 6.36)

In an address to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, Pope Francis described this period in the life of the Church as a time of God’s mercy, and reiterated that priests must be men of mercy, experiencing that ‘gut reaction’ of compassion as they welcome, listen, advise and absolve those seeking healing and forgiveness. They can only do this effectively; he went on, if they allow themselves to be wrapped in God’s embrace through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In this address Pope also described the Church today as a field hospital with so many wounded waiting for healing and wholeness. So the call of lent is to examine and see within oneself whether ones’ ‘heart is open and moved to compassion’? Or as the Pope said, am I ‘ashamed to touch the wounded flesh of those on the margins of society’?

We are called to imitate the compassion and mercy that Jesus embodied, personified and incarnated. In an insightful description of compassion by Fr. William McKee, C.SS.R says, “ Compassion is a virtue with many faces. It is a sharing of pain or failure or brokenness or fear or anxiety. It sometimes means to mourn with those who mourn, to be lonely with those who are lonely, to be weak with those who are weak…

  

The compassionate are not in the lifeboat throwing life preservers to those drowning in the ocean; they are in the ocean themselves, helping the others into the boat or to the safety of the shore”.

As I go about the day today, to whom should I open my heart moved to compassion and mercy? With whom should I suffer with today? Help me Lord to be a compassionate listener and reconciler today. 

   

God Bless you always!
Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!

Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.

Shrine Director