I will never forget a beautiful episode, related in great detail by Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, which took place with a very distinguished family of the aristocracy of São Paulo, of long-standing tradition and considerable wealth, at a time when he was a child. The couple could not have children. However, they both lamented the fact and were keen to adopt a child of their status who could carry on the family name.
One day they were visited in their home by a lady carrying an infant girl in her arms. This poor mother tearfully recounted her story, explaining that she was going through family and financial difficulties and had no means of raising the baby. Knowing that the couple wanted to have a child, she offered her daughter for them to raise.
The husband and wife exchanged looks… Intuitively, they understood one another and decided to decline the offer, because they did not feel sure about this case. But the distressed mother, wanting to save the girl, uncovered her foot a little and insisted:
“She even has a birth defect, a clubfoot. I cannot afford to pay for so much as one medical consultation, and she will grow up like this…”
Then the lady of the house was filled with compassion, looked at her husband a second time and exclaimed:
“Poor little one! Shall we look after her?”
To which he replied:
“Well, if you wish to, I accept.”
And they kept the little girl. She grew up receiving an excellent education; her foster parents had her foot treated and she was instructed on how to walk with an imperfection in her gait so slight that it seemed to add to her elegance. Later, they arranged a good marriage for her, made her heir to all their assets and she made a name for herself in São Paulo society, continuing the family name.
The concept of authority needs to be rectified
Because of a certain revolutionary mentality, our generation encounters an enormous difficulty in comprehending mercy
This story can leave a certain type of revolutionary mentality astounded. In fact, in the world, at school and even in our own families, our generation is instilled with a sense of dread towards any authority, making it extremely difficult to understand mercy. For example, when a child makes a mistake, the temperamental reaction of those in a superior position is usually to criticize and want to punish.
Consequently, young people grow up with a psychological trauma and tremendous insecurity, to the point where if they make a mistake, they are easily discouraged and fall into pessimism, thinking that there is no solution for their life. Because the idea that is harboured in their soul is that God, being infinitely more than those who brought them up, will also trample them underfoot, wipe them out and destroy them if He finds any fault in them. And that is simply not true! A soul formed in this way has never come to know Our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is why Dr. Plinio used to take the story of that little girl as an example, to convince people of the benevolence of the Sacred Heart of Jesus towards those who present themselves to Him as miserable; because it was when the mother acknowledged that her daughter had a clubfoot, as if asking for mercy, that the other lady decided to adopt her. In the same way, certain weaknesses move God in a special way to adopt us as His children.
God is moved by our deficiencies, for someone who fails out of weakness shows that he lacks strength, and therefore needs to be the object of kindness
It is therefore necessary to reconstruct human psychology in the right way, so that when faced with an authentic authority set up by God, the normal reaction is one of complete trust. In holy people, the motive for mercy is not based on the virtue or merits of the other person, but comes from an “instinct” that loves because it wants to love, and is moved by shortcomings to help fix them! When someone fails out of weakness – and not out of malice or hatred of God, as in the case of a recalcitrant sinner – he shows that he is not strong enough and therefore needs to be the object of kindness.
St. Thomas Aquinas1 raises the question as to which is the greatest of the virtues, and shows that in us creatures it is charity, because through it we are united to God, our Superior. But in God, who has no one above Himself, it is mercy.
Love for the miserable
In fact, the Latin word misericordia comes from the composition of two terms: miser – miserable, and cor – heart, because of the relationship between the latter and affective sentiments. In other words, mercy is love for the miserable. Why? Precisely because of their misery.
This principle is particularly relevant for priests. If, before ascending to Heaven, Our Lord left the Sacrament of Confession as the means instituted to reconcile sinners with Him, it is important that those who kneel in the confessional do not see the minister, but consider him rather as Jesus Christ. This is why it is the priest’s duty, as an extension of Our Lord, to do apostolic work with straying souls in such a way as to bring them back into the fold.
Especially in the case of today’s generation, a confessor should never censure the penitent, but listen to him calmly and reassure him a great deal, trying to dispel the thoughts that torment and produce scruples. Otherwise, the person may become fearful enough to go away out of hesitation to declare their faults.
I once read a beautiful story that took place in France at a time when Protestantism was spreading everywhere. A knight, who in an argument had pulled out his sword and killed another knight, was tormented by remorse. Whilst crossing a road, he saw a Protestant church, got off his horse and went inside to pour out his anguish to the pastor.
When he heard the story of the murder, the pastor immediately reacted with indignation, claiming that it was a crime so great that it cried out to God for vengeance and had no forgiveness, but had to be denounced.
Terrified, the knight hurried off and disappeared down the road. Further on, he heard the echo of a bell ringing and spotted a small Catholic church. He stopped and asked an old woman who was coming out if there was a priest who could see him. When she said yes, he went in, knelt down in the confessional and exclaimed:
“Father, I am a murderer… I have killed!”
From inside he heard a serene and patient voice asking:
“How many times, my son? …”
The fact is eloquent in itself, but how can we explain it? It is due to the Catholic priest’s participation in that inexhaustible source of forgiveness and goodness that is Our Lord Jesus Christ. I say this from personal experience.
Ever since I became a priest and started sitting in the confessional, I have at times been astonished to realize that I am not appalled by the worst horrors that are declared there; on the contrary, I feel a greater love for souls and a tremendous desire to do them good. Then I think: “If I react like this to those who are repentant, how will God, who is Perfection, react?”
Forget your faults and love with joy
That is why we must leave Confession with the absolute certainty that the moment the priest, lending his larynx and his voice to Our Lord, said “I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” we were forgiven by Jesus Christ Himself, who promised: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:23).
And not only does He forgive us, but He no longer remembers our faults, as we find in that famous passage from the prophet Micah: “Who is a God like Thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger for ever because He delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion upon us, He will tread our iniquities under foot. Thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (7:18-19). Or as the Psalm says: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger for ever” (103:8-9).
Now, if God does not remember our sins, why do we remember them? This is because we often forget the happiness that the call to holiness brings us. Since we are limited, when we turn our attention to remembering our faults, we have no means left to love what we should. But if we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the excellence of the gifts that the Lord gives us, then the thought of our miseries fades away and all sadness disappears.
I love the beautiful gesture of Sister Benigna Consolata Ferrero, a Visitation Sister who died at the beginning of the 20th century. She was writing with a long goose quill, as was used in those days, and suddenly, due to a brusque movement, the feather hit a statue of the Child Jesus that was on the table, and the statue fell to the floor. The nun immediately got down on her knees, picked up the Child Jesus and kissed Him. Then, looking piously at the image, she said: “My Jesus, if I had not knocked you over, I would not have kissed you!”2
Note that she did not cry or lament, because she knew perfectly well how happy Our Lord is when He is given the opportunity to forgive. And after that episode, for the rest of her life, she began to bear an intensity of love towards the Child Jesus that she had never had before.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus takes pleasure in curing and converting the miserable, thereby accomplishing something wonderful in them
So it is with us: the best way to progress in the spiritual life is to love! The more we love, the higher we will climb. And we must realize that when we have the misfortune of doing something wrong, and we kneel down to beat our breast – saying like the leper in the Gospel: “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean” (Mt 8:2) – the Sacred Heart of Jesus will rejoice, because He takes pleasure in converting someone who is miserable and, in this way, accomplishing something wonderful in us that would never be done if we were completely faithful.
What a mystery of unimaginable love! Blessed are the “clubfeet”! Blessed is the “lame leg” that provides us with the easiest way to climb to the pinnacles of holiness! Using the phrase of an authoritative theologian, we might exclaim: “Blessed is sin, which has revealed to us, like nothing else, the incomparable love of God!”3
Two paths: despair or confidence
In this sense, let us consider two sins that were committed on the same night: Judas betrays and Peter denies… Ah, precisely Peter, the Apostle who loved Jesus the most, who had promised never to abandon the Master! He, therefore, was the one who sinned the most after Judas, because the others ran away, but he formally denied Him, and three times!
Nevertheless, Judas despairs and Peter obtains forgiveness. Why? Because he knew how to fix his gaze on the eyes of the Lord (cf. Lk 22:61-62).
If Judas, too, after his betrayal, had sought out Our Lord on the Cross and, even without saying anything, only asked for forgiveness with sorrow deep within his soul, Jesus would have been capable of detaching His hand from the nail and saying: “My son, go, your sin is forgiven!”
We find this in Our Lord’s revelations to Sister Josefa Menéndez: “It is not sin that most wounds my Heart… What tears it apart is that they do not come to take refuge in It after having committed it. […] Who can understand the intense pain of my Heart when I saw this soul [Judas’], who had spent three years in the school of my love, thrown into eternal perdition? […] Ah, Judas! Why do you not come and throw yourself at my feet so that I can forgive you? If you do not dare approach Me, for fear of those who surround Me, mistreating Me with such fury, at least look at Me! You will see how readily my eyes are fixed on you.”4
Even today there are two types of sinners: those who confide and those who despair. Which of these two categories will we imitate?
Those who suffer under the weight of their faults: know that the Immaculate Heart of Mary sighs to obtain for you the grace of pardon
Let us trust therefore in this goodness and forgiveness. We should not be disheartened by our faults and imperfections, but consider this very important point, which I emphasize incisively: our miseries win Our Lady’s compassionate gaze and move her to love us even more. Therefore, those who suffer under the weight of their faults: know that the Immaculate Heart of Mary groans even more to obtain for you the grace of forgiveness and the extraordinary liberality of Our Lord Jesus Christ. ◊
Excerpts from oral expositions
given between 1992 and 2009
Notes
1 Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa Theologiæ. II-II, q.30, a.4.
2 Cf. SISTERS OF THE VISITATION. Sister Benigna Consolata Ferrero. Washington, DC: Georgetown Visitation Convent, 1921, p.71.
3 CABODEVILLA, José María. Discurso del Padrenuestro. Ruegos y preguntas. Madrid: BAC, 1971, p.319.
4 MENÉNDEZ, RSCJ, Josefa. Un llamamiento al amor. 7.ed. Madrid: Religiosas del Sagrado Corazón, 1998, p.266; 405-406.
