The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy ends today. Some Catholics celebrated the year’s start in Rome. I didn’t. Like most of us, I’ve been participating in my own way, where I live.
The biggest change in routine for me has been during Mass. We’ve been receiving the Eucharist under both forms: our Lord’s body and blood.
If you think that’s sounds gory and repulsive, you’re not alone.
“Whoever eats 19 my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
Receiving under both kinds has been a big deal for this parish, since our bishop had to sign off on the procedure, and we needed more servers. I hope we can continue after the Year of Mercy. But we’ll see what happens.
I like what we’ve been doing, particularly since receiving our Lord under both forms is closer to what happened at the Last Supper.
And since, like Peter, I am convinced that Jesus has “the words of eternal life;” following our Lord is my only reasonable option.
It’s the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that’s ending today, not mercy. That’s part of a mission we’ve been on, ever since our Lord stopped being dead.
“15 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the holy Spirit.
Mercy doesn’t make sense without some idea of what sin is.
There’s a whole mess of ways I can sort sin into categories.
I don’t go to the “drinking bouts, orgies, and the like” mentioned in Galatians 5:21 puts it; so I could decide that I’m so stinking holy that I’ll get a front-row seat in Heaven. That would be a really bad decision, which brings me to another way to sort sins.
There’s no such thing as a “good” sin, but some are worse than others — and the Catholic viewpoint on which is which isn’t what you might expect.
Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” is an epic poem, great literature, but not an official Catholic document. The poet does, however, show a pretty good understanding of what the Church has been saying.
Dante puts punishments for lust about as far from Hell’s frozen center as possible.
Sometimes our need for mercy is as obvious as the the woman’s in John 8:1–11. Sometimes not so much.
There’s more to say, much more, about love, mercy, and getting a grip; but today I’ll settle for a few more quotes.
“Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful.
“CHARITY: The theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and out neighbor as ourselves for the love of God (1822).
“MORTAL SIN: A grave infraction of the law of God that destroys the divine life in the soul of the sinner (sanctifying grace), constituting a turn away from God. For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must be present: grave matter, full knowledge of the evil of the act, and full consent of the will (1855, 1857).
“MERCY: The loving kindness, compassion, or forbearance shown to one who offends (e.g., the mercy of God to us sinners) (1422, 1829). See Works of Mercy.
“SIN: An offense against as well as a fault against reason, truth, and right conscience. Sin is a deliberate thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to the eternal law of God. In judging the gravity of sin, it is customary to distinguish between mortal and venial sins (1849, 1853, 1854).
“VENIAL SIN: Sin which does not destroy the divine life in the soul, as does mortal sin, though it diminishes and wounds it (1855). Venial sin is the failure to observe necessary moderation, in lesser matters of the moral law, or in grave matters acting without full knowledge or complete consent (1862).
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