Read The Name of God Is Mercy for Free Online

that’s how he is…he’s a father. A father waiting at the doorway, who sees us when we are still far off, who is moved, and who comes running toward us, embraces us, andkisses us tenderly….Our sin is like a jewel that we present to him to obtain the consolation of forgiveness….Giving a gift of jewels is a noble thing to do, and it is not a defeat but a joyous victory to let God win!”
    To follow the way of the Lord, the Church is called on to pour its mercy over all those who recognize themselves as sinners, who assume responsibility for the evil they have committed, and who feel in need of forgiveness. The Church does not exist to condemn people but to bring about an encounter with the visceral love of God’s mercy. I often say that in order for this to happen, it is necessary to go out: to go out from the church and the parishes, to go outside and look for people where they live, where they suffer, and where they hope. I like to use the image of a field hospital to describe this “Church that goes forth”; it exists where there is combat, it is not a solid structure with all the equipment where people go to receive treatment for both small and large infirmities. It is a mobile structure that offers first aid and immediate care, so that its soldiers do not die. It’s a place forurgent care, not a place to see a specialist. I hope that the Jubilee will serve to reveal the Church’s deeply maternal and merciful side, a Church that goes forth toward those who are “wounded,” who are in need of an attentive ear, understanding, forgiveness, and love.



C AN there be mercy without acknowledgment of one’s sins?
             
    Mercy exists, but if you don’t want to receive it…If you don’t recognize yourself as a sinner, it means you don’t want to receive it, it means that you don’t feel the need for it. Sometimes it is hard to know exactly what happened. Sometimes you might feel skeptical and think it is impossible to get back on your feet again. Or maybe you prefer your wounds, the wounds of sin, and you behave like a dog, licking your wounds with your tongue. This is a narcissistic illness that makes people bitter. There is pleasure in feeling bitter, an unhealthy pleasure.
    If we do not begin by examining our wretchedness, if we stay lost and despair that we will never be forgiven, we end up licking our wounds, and they stayopen and never heal. Instead, there is medicine, there is healing, we only need take a small step toward God, or at least express the desire to take it. A tiny opening is enough. All we need to do is take our condition seriously. We need to remember and remind ourselves where we come from, what we are, our nothingness. It is important that we not think of ourselves as self-sufficient.
    Saint Teresa of Avila warned her sisters about the vanity of self-sufficiency. When she heard comments such as “They had no reason to do this to me,” she would say, “May God free us from bad reasons. If someone doesn’t want to carry the cross, I don’t know what she’s still doing in the convent.”
    None of us should speak of injustice without thinking of all the injustice we have committed before God. We must never forget our origins, the mud of which we were made, and this counts above all for those who are ordained.
    W HAT do you think of people who always confess the same sins?
             
    If you are talking about the penitent who automatically repeats a formula, I would have to say that he was not well prepared, he was not well catechized, he does not know how to self-examine, and he does not realize how many sins he actually commits….I greatly enjoy hearing children confess, because they are not abstract; they say what really happened. They make you smile. They are simple: they say what happened and they know what they did was wrong.
    When there is the kind of repetitiveness that becomes a habit, you cannot grow in the awareness of yourself or of the Lord; it would