THE
P RTAL
October 2015
Page 3
Portal Comment
The Corporal Works of Mercy and
The Spiritual Works of Mercy
have been on Will Burton’s mind
Soon we
shall enter the “Year of Mercy”. This month Rome will host the Extraordinary General
Assembly of Bishops on Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelisation. These two
have been linked in much of the publicity generated in the, non-church, press at least.
It was Vincent, Cardinal Nichols who
reminded me of this at the Proclaim 15
conference in Birmingham. He read out the
Spiritual Works of Mercy during his talk
that day. I looked them up.
The Corporal Works of Mercy are: feed
the hungry; give drink to the thirsty;
clothe the naked; shelter the homeless;
visit the sick; visit the imprisoned; and
bury the dead.
The Cardinal actually quoted The Spiritual
Works of Mercy. These are: admonish the
sinner; instruct the ignorant; counsel the
doubtful; comfort the sorrowful; bear wrongs
patiently; forgive all injuries; and pray for the living
and the dead.
Think of forgiveness as God’s gift. He cannot
give it to us if we refuse to accept it, and we
cannot accept it if we maintain that we have
not sinned.
We do not say “Lord have mercy” at
every Mass by accident. It is an essential
element in our coming to the Holy
Sacrifice. It is also an essential element
in our daily lives.
As we pray for our holy Bishops who are
meeting in Synod in Rome this month, let
us all remember the Spiritual Works of Mercy
as well as the Corporal Works of Mercy.
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They struck me as very important to the coming Year
of Mercy as well as to the October Synod in Rome.
Caring for those in need is obviously central to
the concept of mercy. But we are also instructed to
admonish the sinner and to instruct the ignorant.
Now, obeying these injunctions will be very difficult
if one has already decided that sin is no sin. In order
to love those who have fallen foul of the Church’s
teaching it seems that we have to condone the action
they have taken.
But, as my Sunday School teacher taught me one
Sunday afternoon in the 1950s, and Fr Ed Tomlinson
pointed out on his blog, we are to “hate the sin, but love
the sinner”. This teaching is pertinent today, when so
many people are confused by what the Church teaches
on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, and even
marriage.
It does people no good at all if we lessen the
seriousness of sin. We may think our attitude lessens
sin’s seriousness, but it does not. Sin is sin, and it is
forgivable providing we acknowledge that we have
sinned.
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