One of Pope Francis’s favorite themes is mercy. He writes, “God’s mercy transforms human hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become merciful in turn. In an ever new miracle, divine mercy shines forth in our lives, inspiring each of us to love our neighbor and to devote ourselves to what the Church’s tradition calls the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. These works remind us that faith finds expression in concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbors in body and spirit. On such things will we be judged.”
Again and again Jesus shows that God is merciful, loving, waiting to give us everything that is good. “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” We read a passage like this one from Matthew’s Gospel ,and we can’t believe that it’s that easy. But the revelation of the Gospels is that our God is bigger and greater and more loving and trustworthy than even the best human being we have known. Once we realize the great truth in this, we let God’s mercy overflow to everyone we meet.
—from the book The Hope of Lent: Daily Reflections from Pope Francis
by Diane M. Houdek
