by Bishop Michael J. Sis
December 9, 2015

The theme of mercy is central to the ministry of our Pope Francis. He teaches that mercy is “the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us.” Calling all of us to contemplate the mystery of mercy, our Holy Father has proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy to be observed by Catholics worldwide from December 8, 2015, to November 20, 2016.

Our experience of the Year of Mercy should begin by opening ourselves to receive the mercy of God. Then, in response to that divine gift, we must extend mercy to others. We are to become ambassadors for mercy, allowing people to find the mercy of God in us.

Pope Francis calls us to make our churches, parish organizations, ministries, and dioceses more merciful. In his recent document Misericordiae Vultus (MV), he states, “Wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.” (MV, 12) In response to this exhortation, all of us should take the opportunity this year to reexamine the activity of our church organizations through the lens of mercy. Do we treat one another with mercy? How can we more effectively lead people to the mercy of God through the way we carry out the life of our parishes and ministries?

Throughout this Holy Year, we will carry out special initiatives of mercy in our parishes, our diocese, and the Church worldwide. The Holy Father wishes us “to gaze even more attentively on mercy so that we may become a more effective sign of the Father’s action in our lives.” (MV, 3)

In particular, this is a time for us to rediscover the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, paying special attention to living them out. The seven corporal works of mercy are these: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. The seven spiritual works of mercy are these: counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, for give offenses, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead.

In any Jubilee Holy Year, the Church encourages us to make a pilgrimage of faith and to pass through one of the designated Holy Doors as an expression of conversion. Since only very few will have the time or resources to travel all the way to Rome or the Holy Land to make a pilgrimage this year, I have designated four Holy Doors of Mercy in the Diocese of San Angelo. These doors will not bear this designation after the conclusion of the Year of Mercy.

Whenever possible during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, I hope that many of our Catholic faithful will take the opportunity to visit any one of these sites and pray the prayers associated with the Jubilee pilgrimage. A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who fulfill the prescribed conditions associated with this pilgrimage to a Holy Door during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, so this is an extraordinary opportunity to embark on the path of conversion.

The practice of designating a Holy Door has been used since the fifteenth century to provide a place for pilgrims and penitents to pass through as a gesture of leaving sin behind and crossing the threshold of grace, passing from darkness to light, from slavery to freedom.

When Saint John Paul II declared the last Jubilee Holy Year in 2000, he said, “To focus on the door is to recall the responsibility of every believer to cross its threshold. To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; it is to strengthen faith in him in order to live the new life which he has given us.” (Incarnationis Mysterium, 8)

In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis asks us to let the door be a symbol of Christ, who is the door to the Father and the door to the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus proclaims in the Gospel of John, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture…. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:9, 10b) He also says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) St. Paul teaches that, through Jesus Christ, we “have access in one Spirit to the Father.” (Eph. 2:18)

Throughout the Jubilee Year of Mercy, we will offer more information in the West Texas Angelus as well as on the website of the Diocese of San Angelo, www.sanangelodiocese.org.

There are also many resources available at the official Vatican website for the Jubilee, www.im.va.