At audience, Pope says understanding God's mercy requires recognizing our sinfulness
December 09, 2015
Pope Francis made the opening of the Jubilee Year of Mercy the focus of his regular weekly public audience on December 9.
“The Church needs this extraordinary moment,” the Pope said. “In our time of profound change, the Church is called upon to offer her special contribution, making visible the signs of God's presence and closeness. And the Jubilee is a propitious time for all, as contemplating Divine Mercy, that exceeds all human limits and shines onto the darkness of sin, we can be surer and more effective witnesses.”
The Jubilee, the Pope continued, is a time “for the Church to learn to choose solely ‘what God likes the most’—forgiving his children, having mercy on them, so that they can in turn forgive their brethren, to shine like beacons of God's mercy in the world.”
To live the Jubilee, the Pope said, the faithful must avoid “the temptation to think that there is something else more important” than God’s mercy. The focus on mercy should help to renew the institutions of the Church, he added.
The great obstacle to recognition of God’s infinite mercy is man’s own self-love, which can “make mercy foreign to the world,” the Pope said. The first step toward understanding Divine Mercy, then, is a recognition that we are sinners.
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