During this Year of Mercy, I have begun many homilies by quoting my favourite line from Pope Francis’ letter introducing the Year of Mercy. In case you do not remember that sentence, it states: “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy.” The Pope goes on to state: “These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith.” St. Paul says basically the same thing in today’s second reading from the Letter to the Colossians, as he states: “Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God.” In his letter, Paul goes on to state the God created the world with Christ and in the fullness of time sent Jesus into the world that He might redeem each of us “through the Blood of His cross.”

This Sunday’s Gospel treats us to the beautiful story of the Good Samaritan. In this story, we hear an instruction on how it is that we are to love our neighbour. The neighbour of the man who is robbed is said to be the one who showed him mercy. The command that is given to those who hear this story is that they should go and do likewise to all whom they encounter. This is a huge command. It can be difficult to understand how we can possibly respond to it. Living it depends upon our properly understanding all that Christ has done for us.

How can God ask so much of us?

As Pope Francis makes so clear in his letter on the Year of Mercy, we are able to show mercy to our brothers and sisters in need only if we understand how much mercy God has shown us through the death and resurrection of His Son. In some ways this means truly understanding what Paul is saying when he says that “Jesus is the image of the invisible God.” This sentence is actually a great summary of sacramental theology. It points to the fact that God sent His Son into the world to reveal to us His love and the extent to which He will go to save each and everyone of us. Today, God continues to show each of us His love for us in the sacramental celebrations of the Church. In fact, I would like to suggest that today, each and every time that we come to the Eucharist, we ourselves are participating in a version of the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which God Himself comes to be with us and offer us His healing love.

Every single human being, every one of us gathered here for the celebration of Mass, is a broken and wounded person. At times we feel a hurt and pain that no one else can touch or heal. Often our family members and those who are dear to us pass us by in our pain and we are either unable to articulate it so that they may help us or they are too busy to stop and take the time to help us. The people that we hope will help us, may often not understand our pain or not have the resources, either mental, emotional or financial to help us. Even though they might pass us by, Jesus is always there to help us and actually pours out all that He has for us. As we come to the Eucharist, Jesus does for us all that the Good Samaritan did for the man at the side of the road and more. In the Eucharist, Jesus pours out His body and blood for us so that we might be healed and strengthened by His grace. After He shows us how much He loves us, at the end of Mass He sends us out like the man in today’s Gospel with the command that we should go and do likewise. This is what takes place at the end of Mass. After Jesus has come to us as a neighbour, in the form of bread, so that all of us may draw close to Him, He sends us out into the world in order that we might love others as He has loved us. We begin Mass by asking that He might be merciful to us in the Penitential Rite and we leave Mass with the commission that we might show to others the same mercy that He has shown us in the Eucharistic celebration.

The answer to the question, “How can God ask so much of us?”, is only found if we can understand that God has done so much for us and continues to do so each time that we come to the Eucharist. It is because of God’s generosity to us in shedding His blood that we have eternal life, that we are called to show generosity to our brothers and sisters in need. So often this is something people assume is only the responsibility of priests and nuns. The sending at the end of Mass is something that clearly implies that charity is the responsibility of all who have received Christ in the sacrament of His Eucharist. As we understand the fact that God has made Himself a neighbour to us through His mercy, we too are called to share that mercy with our brothers and sisters by making ourselves neighbours to them. In this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has asked that all Christians attempt to model their lives on Christ’s mercy by becoming more familiar with the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and committing themselves to practicing them more actively in their daily lives. Again, in order to do this, we are called to more deeply understand how much mercy God has shown to us in the life, death and resurrection of His Son, in order that we might “go and do likewise.”

In the corporal works of mercy we are called to: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned and bury the dead. These are things that we are each called to do either through our personal actions or by supporting charities like ShareLife that allow the Christian community to do this work in our community. In fact this year, our community raised more than $23,000.00 for ShareLife and many contribute time and talent for the Winter Welcome Table and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The spiritual works of mercy are as important. They are: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offences, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead. In His life, death and resurrection, Jesus has done all of this for us. It is because He has loved us so that we are called to love our neighbour in the same way.

The sentences “Jesus is the image of the invisible God” and “Jesus is the face of the Father’s mercy” are beautiful ways of proclaiming that God left Heaven to make Himself a neighbour to us. To become our neighbour, Jesus was born in a manger, lived the life of a nomadic preacher and was ultimately stripped of everything and died on the cross. Jesus’s whole life proclaims God’s mercy as He personifies the corporal and spiritual acts of mercy. He continues to make Himself our neighbour in each Eucharistic celebration. In the Eucharist, Jesus takes on the form of a simple piece of bread so that He might be closer to us and show us His mercy active in our lives. It is only because of all that He has done and continues to do that we as His people can be sent out from each Eucharistic celebration with the command: “Go and do likewise.”

Fr. Michael McGourty,
Pastor— St. Peters’s Parish, Toronto