When we talk about the year of mercy, when Pope Francis asks us to “gaze even more attentively on mercy,” we are not meant to look first to God’s mercy for others, because God’s mercy is meant first and foremost for us. Until I am willing to let my brokenness, my garbage, my hurt and my pain come front and center before the Lord, where I am able to sit and simply bask in His mercy, I have not truly grasped this year of mercy, and I have missed what the Lord’s mercy is truly all about.
When Jesus comes to save, He comes as the Good Shepherd who, in His immense mercy, puts me on His shoulders and carries me home. The time of mercy is now, and that doesn't mean mercy for everyone else, it means mercy for me and mercy for you, mercy which looks at each of us right here and right now.
