THE 7 CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY:
Be merciful, as your Heavenly Father is merciful.”
Lk 6:36
Pope Francis, in his Misericordiae vultus, reminds us that WE MUST ADOPT GOD’S MERCY AS OUR LIFESTYLE.
- To be merciful like the Father requires programme of life which leads us to listen to his voice, rediscovering the value of silence to meditate on it, in order to adopt His mercy as our lifestyle.
For us, “Life is a pilgrimage in itself. Mercy is a goal to reach and requires dedication and sacrifice. Personal conversion. Do not judge; do not condemn, accepting the good in every person and to spare him any suffering that might be caused by our partial judgment and our presumption to know everything about him. Forgive and to give without asking nothing in return and to be compassionate towards others, knowing that we are instruments of His mercy.
Open our hearts, heal the wounds of those who are suffering and who are denied their dignity, console and cure them with solidarity and vigilant care overcoming our indifference, routine, destructive cynicism, hypocrisy and egoism.
Let us rediscover the corporal and spiritual works of mercy which will serve as the criteria upon which we will be judged.”
Let us rediscover these corporal works of mercy:
THE 7 CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY are as follows:
1. Feed the hungry.
2. Give drink to the thirsty.
3. Clothe the naked.
4. Shelter the homeless.
5. Visit the sick.
6. Visit the imprisoned.
7. Bury the dead.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 2449 reminds us of what God said in the Book of Deutornomy 15:11: “For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in the land.'”
And then states:
Jesus makes these words his own: “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. “In so doing he does not soften the vehemence of former oracles against “buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals . . .,” but invites us to recognize his own presence in the poor who are his brethren:
When her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at home, St. Rose of Lima said to her: “When we serve the poor and the sick, we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve Jesus.”
SEE AS WELL: THE 7 SPIRITUAL WORKS OF MERCY IN https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.org/the-7-spiritual-works-of-mercy/
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