Recently I have been thinking about Pope Francis’ challenge in Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) #114, “The church must be a place of mercy freely given where everyone can feel welcome, loved, forgiven, and encouraged to live the Gospel.” The important word here is “feel welcome”. We may insist that they are welcome but do people like the divorced and remarried or gay people feel welcome? Would they see the church as one place where they could expect welcome, support and encouragement?
Francis’ vision of the church is a place where everyone can come with all their problems and where they will meet fellow sinners trying to help one another grow through the weaknesses, mistakes, successes, insights and attempts to love in their lives.
I have never been able to verify this quote but I always found inspiration in a supposed saying of Cardinal Newman, namely that he eventually became a Catholic because the Catholic Church contained so many sinners that it had to be of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we need more sinners, more vulnerable and struggling people in our churches. After all there is no point in coming to church unless you need help from God and one another.
Another challenging statement in Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) is “The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.” #47 When I was studying in Rome I used to work in a German parish near the Black Forrest during my holidays and I always remember that in one of the churches where I said Mass at least three times a week, there were around five men, including the Burgermeister or Mayor, who were always at Mass but only came to communion at Easter. I presume that were influenced by Jansenism that insisted you could only go to communion if you were perfect. Unfortunately there is a little bit of Jansenism in all of us. While we may not regard the Eucharist as “a reward for the perfect,” I do not think we see it primarily as medicine for weak sinners.
One of the principles in Pope Francis’ latest Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, which I find helpful in this regard, is the principle of gradualness in pastoral care. He wants the Church “to turn with love to those who participate in her life in an imperfect manner”; to welcome the damaged, to consider the “concrete situations and practical possibilities of real families;” [AL 36] “to be attentive to goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness.” [AL 308] He cites the law of gradualness also articulated by John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio. It is based on the insight that moral development does not happen all at once but gradually. So Francis welcomes all and asks the pastor to meet, with “pastoral realism”, people where they are at, accompany them, encouraging them to take as big a step forward as they can. In Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Francis powerfully said, ‘A small step, in the midst of great human limitations, can be more pleasing to God than a life which appears outwardly in order but moves through the day without confronting great difficulties.’
Although gradualness tries to maintain the objectivity of the law and of the person’s actual situation, Francis says, “I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion” [AL 308]. There are many in the Church who are critical of the “vagueness” and “relativeness” of this approach and want more certainty.
Interestingly gradualness was Jesus’ approach. Jesus never demanded that people be perfect or even that they repent of their sins before he met, ate with or touched them. In this he was scandalous. The Pharisees would never mix with the imperfect. John the Baptist demanded repentance before baptism as any prophet would. But Jesus had an entirely different revelation to make. He wanted to show the weak that God was a God of mercy and compassion more than power and righteousness. He welcomed them because he understood that those who lack everything and are condemned to live with shame and without honour and dignity do not need more law or a homily. This did not mean that the commandments were unimportant to him. Instead, he knew that spiritual progress takes time and right then they needed acceptance, love and confidence not a reminder of how far they were falling short. Grace comes before judgement in Jesus’ reign of God.
Jesus’ dream for the sick and the poor was not that they might be converted but that they could live a fuller and healthier life and that they might recover their trust in God. He hoped that by loving them and convincing them that God loved them he could release the lover in them and they would grow into the Kingdom. With Jesus the poor, sick and weak no longer felt alone, abandoned and condemned. Loved, accompanied and sustained by him they opened themselves up more trustingly to God. For Jesus to be true to his Father he could not have done it any other way.
And if we are to be faithful to Jesus and his Father we too can do it no other way. We will only be able to show mercy when we know our own need for mercy. And the vulnerable will only feel welcome when we too see ourselves as vulnerable and we are known as a community where no one is perfect and vulnerable, weak people need not feel ashamed but at home.
Fr Noel Connolly SSC is a Columban missionary priest. He is a member of the Columban Mission Institute in North Sydney and a lecturer in Missiology at both the Broken Bay Institute and the Catholic Institute of Sydney.