Prayer and Reflection for December 2015
The
Incarnation of Mercy
We are all waiting in joyful
anticipation for the opening of the Holy Door, or rejoicing deeply that it has
already taken place, in order to allow ourselves to be drawn by the fascination
of the “Misericordiae Vultus”, the face of mercy, of a God whom
we will never cease discovering. Of you my heart has spoken: Seek his face.
Your face, O Lord, I seek. Hide not your face from me (Ps 26:8-9).
In this way we pray with the psalmist,
in this way we pray with the Church. Pope Francis speaks to us as follows: “Jesus
Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy”, he is the face who allows us to
identify the person of God himself in whom we believe, with complete generosity
of heart. The mercy of the Father shines brightly on the face of Jesus Our Lord.
Throughout the course of this holy
Year, it will be the Spirit of the Living God who will guide and lead us to the
contemplation of this face of mercy, this human face which, in the Incarnation,
the Holy Spirit formed in the womb of Mary.
In temptation and in the fall, Adam
did not trust his Creator.
In the Incarnation, Mary surrenders
herself unconditionally: “Here I am”, and gives her full, complete and
irrevocable assent to the Father’s plan.
Growing in her womb was the fairest
of the children of men, on whose lips are spread grace and mercy, pure and free
because offered to those who do not deserve it.
In the
Incarnation, the promise of the Protoevangelium restores our trust in our
Creator God: “her seed shall bruise your head” (cf. Gn 3, 15). The Son of God
crushes the head of the enemy who had struck him - and who continues to strike
human hearts with doubt, distrust and lack of confidence in their God.
The Incarnation, for whose
celebration we are preparing ourselves during this Advent, is the Incarnation
of Mercy, which “is from generation to generation” (Lc 1:50), the Mercy of God
which still wants to propose itself to the free choice of each one of us, who
so often fall prey to discouragement, to dismay, to guilt feelings, to the
temptation to selfishness, to closed-mindedness and to despondency, as if the
enemy still had the last word in our lives.
Rejoice Mary, you have found favour in the sight of God. The promise
becomes good news: this offspring will crush the head of the enemy, who
insidiously continues to say to us: How can God love you, who are so unworthy,
so fragile, so inconsistent?
The Incarnation
of the Son of God is mercy given freely, which gives me again the certainty
that God loves me personally, he loves me precisely because I don’t deserve to
be loved. Mercy becomes flesh precisely for me, a sinner; a sinner, but not
corrupt, because I recognise my need of mercy! (Pope Francis)
To use the words of St. Vincent: Oh
how good God is with me who am unworthy of every good, and deserving of every
evil! (cf. OOCC X, 182)
Mercy becomes
flesh in Jesus and comes to seek me, to find me; comes to my house to bring
salvation, comes to dwell with me.
The angel also says to me: “Do not
be afraid, behold I bring you news of great joy, which is for all the people:
Today a Saviour is born, who is Christ the Lord (Lk 2:10-11).
Mercy become flesh is the only
source of joy for us human beings of every time, language, people and nation.
If mercy comes
to dwell with us, we can no longer walk around sad, with our heads bowed down. If
mercy has become flesh it is so that we may no longer be closed in upon
ourselves in our selfishness, in the narrow walls of our felling good being
alone.
“In this Holy Year - Pope Francis
reminds us - the sweetness of the countenance of the Mother of Mercy watches
over us, so that all of us may rediscover the joy of God’s tenderness. Mary
attests that the mercy of the Son of God knows no bounds and extends to
everyone, without exception” (cf. Misericordiae
Vultus 24).
Under the gaze
of Mary we contemplate the mystery, our hearts filled with gratitude, and say
to her, as Saint Vincent taught us: You are our Teacher, Mother and Advocate:
as Teacher you invite us to come to you every day to hear the inspirations
which you give us to comfort us and sustain us in living the Gospel faithfully;
as Mother show pity to us in our miseries; as Advocate you are ready to obtain
whatever we need to remedy every lack of correspondence to grace. In every
necessity we know who to appeal to with trust. You, Daughter of the Eternal
Father, will obtain for us spiritual power to overcome all enemies of our soul,
who wish to prevent us from believing in his infinite mercy. You, Mother of the
Eternal Word made flesh, will obtain for us light to know the tricks that the
enemy uses against us. You, Bride of the Holy Spirit, are always ready, or
rather, ardently desire and, through your intercession commit yourself to
obtain for us, the grace of living a life of love in the infinite Love (cf.
OOCC XIII, 191-192).
In this Holy Year of mercy, let us
spend much time with Jesus, Mercy made flesh, let us experience his action in
our hearts, let us allow ourselves to be touched by his presence in the very
depths of our being: my God, I believe that I would offend your mercy if I
dared to think that you who are Infinite Mercy would not be able to triumph
over all of my resistance. I would truly offend you, my Infinite mercy, if I
dared to doubt. You treat me so mercifully with an abundance of grace even
greater than that which you give to those who are upright of heart! (cf. OOCC
X, 182). Let us ask the Holy Spirit, who made the Incarnation possible, to make
each one of us a channel of mercy, to mould also in us a face of mercy and to
communicate to us the same feelings that were in Christ Jesus.
Let us share mercy with concrete
actions: let us give attention, a listening ear, time, to those who live alongside
us.
Let us share our experience that “mercy
will always be greater than any sin”, and that” no one can place limits on the
love of God who is ever ready to forgive” (MV 3).
With Saint Vincent let us renew our
unshakeable trust:
I believe and
hold with certainty that your mercy destroys all my misery and fills me with
all your gifts above all the angels and all the saints, of all past, present,
future and possible creatures, in such a way that if, in Mary, all ages and all
generations will admire the miracle of your grace then, in me, who in misery,
ungodliness and ingratitude surpass all of the rebellious angels and all of the
human race, they will have to admire the miracle of your Mercy (cf. OOCC X,
303). In this year of Mercy, let each one of us live and “tell of” this
marvellous experience!
UAC
Italy
____________________________________________________
Segretariato Generale, Unione dell’Apostolato
Cattolico
Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti 204, 00187 Roma, Italia uac@uniopal.org
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