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| Jacques GAILLOT, Blessed are the Merciful |
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| If I were asked to draw mercy, how would I do it? A person approaches me with arms extended, with a face full of goodness and eyes that speak of the tenderness of his/her heart. |
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| Mercy shows excess, disproportion, superabundance, gratuitousness… It goes beyond our pittances. |
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| It is no wonder that we are surprised and taken aback. |
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| Surpassing the logic of giving and receiving, it exceeds strict justice, expecting nothing in return. |
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| Mercy is Jesus’ signature: a gift that exceeds all justice. |
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| In the Gospel, only women show evidence of superabundance! |
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| “I love them so much I find them beautiful” |
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| Some time ago I was invited to visit a home for people with severe disabilities. It was a house that lay on the outskirts of a town. The person who accompanied me through the different rooms was a priest. Normally he worked at night but he had to be there so that I could pay the visit. |
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| I passed disjointed bodies, broken faces that seemed covered with masks of ugliness. I found their screams unbearable. |
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| I was anxious and upset. The one accompanying me noted my unease, he looked at me and made this extraordinary statement that I have never forgotten: |
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| “I love them so much I find them beautiful!” |
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| This pierced my heart. A path opened before me to discover my fears and weaknesses. |
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| I understood that loving is not doing something for someone, it is to discover that it is beautiful. Is happiness not knowing that one is beautiful in the eyes of others? |
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| This priest had a heart of “flesh” not a heart of “stone”. He didn’t put up walls of fear to protect himself from others. He was free to approach them and love them. He could understand each disabled person: “You are important! I love you! With your wounds and your weaknesses, you can be great and be yourself”. |
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| “I can’t forgive”. |
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| One afternoon, a woman I barely knew, begged me insistently to go to see a great friend of hers who was about to die in the Salpêtrière, the great Parisian hospital: she was suffering from Charcot joint disease (hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy). |
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| I refused: to go to the hospital to see a woman I didn’t know and who was about to die; was difficult. Why? But the woman on the telephone ignored my reluctance. |
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| “I beg you, come here”. |
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| I left everything and went to the hospital, with leaden feet and unwillingly: I knew nothing of this sick woman who was about to die, not even her name. Was she married? Was she a Christian? And if there were two patients in the room, which one was her? |
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| Knocking at the room door I stopped my questioning and put my trust in the Holy Spirit. |
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| I saw an enormous smile on the face of this woman with Charcot joint disease. The man at the foot of her bed was her husband. He left hurriedly. |
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| I found myself alone with this woman who was very thin and was unable to speak. She was writing on a small slate without pausing and showed me the slate. I liked what she wrote. |
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- “Thanks for being here. Can I ask you a few things?”
- “Yes, if they are not too difficult”
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| She began to laugh. Her question surprised me: |
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- “What will happen when I reach the hereafter?”
- “You will see when you are there, what is important is what is happening now”
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| My reply caused her to laugh out loud. All was well between us. |
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| “I think the same as you” |
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| Then came the crucial question: |
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- “I haven’t managed to forgive those who have wronged me. I would like to die in peace. I have a weight in my heart”
- “It is not easy to forgive. Despite our efforts we don’t manage it. Let us both ask our heavenly Father for the strength to forgive those who have harmed us”
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| I took her hand and slowly said the Lord’s prayer. I noted that she joined in the prayer with all her heart. |
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| I gave her a blessing. I kissed her on the forehead and left. |
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| One afternoon I received a text message on my phone: |
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| “I have forgiven. My heart is at peace. Thanks be to God. Thank you for this light-filled encounter”. |
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| Next morning a new text-message: |
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| “My heart is at great peace. I am ready to go when the Lord wants. Thanks again for that meeting of peace and light”. |
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| She died soon afterwards. |
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| Mercy is not manufactured; it is received. |
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| God’s gift is not bought, is not sold, it is not a return call. |
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| Give freely without expecting anything in return, without anybody losing hope. |
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| Risk loving until the end. |
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| ”Mercy is the best way to enter the Kingdom of God”. (Pope Francis) |
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| “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy” Mt 5,7 |
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Jacques GAILLOT
Bishop of Partenia
Priestly Fraternity Iesus Caritas |
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| Paris, 20 June, 2016, Posted on 08/10/2016 by Fraternidad Iesus Caritas |
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