I started the Year of Mercy by attending a funeral. One often hears how funerals are for the living. There’s some truth to that — there’s grace in the consoling outpouring of love at this time — but funerals are also for the deceased. We pray for their souls — hopeful of their entry in heaven. It is a Corporal Work of Mercy.
I don’t think we pay enough attention to Works of Mercy. My eyes were opened to this recently in a very intimate way.
I’ve been anticipating the Year of Mercy since I returned from Cuba in late September. In fact, while I was in Cuba, I became aware that my trip home was a pilgrimage of mercy on many levels. That was the tag line for the Pope’s apostolic visit, but I didn’t realize I would live it so beautifully!
The first several days were spent in pilgrimage-mode. We attended Masses, including the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Holguin. Every meeting, every visit, each gathering had elements of the spiritual works. Homilies and public discourse included charitable catechesis — teaching about the faith, about Jesus Christ. The public talk was about forgiveness, and there were a few times when the Truth was spoken quite clearly. I watched, an observer, recognizing the example of the spiritual works of mercy as they continually played out before me.
Then as the Pope’s visit ended, we began a second kind of journey, more personal, definitely private, as we began a trek toward Havana, stopping at the homes of family and friends. This was the piece that brought me great peace. We visited the tomb of my grandparents and prayed there for them and others. We visited the sick. We visited shut-ins. We loved, abundantly and unconditionally.
I had a fundamental shift in the way I see the Works of Mercy. For all the outpouring that I initiated, I received double in return. I was visited. I was loved. I was fed. I was instructed.
I was corrected.
It was humbling. And merciful.
As I reflect on that now, entering into these first days of the Year of Mercy, I am encouraged to seek a deeper relationship with Christ.