Homily to Mark Catholic Schools Week
On Sunday, March 17 2013, the day after he became Pope, Pope Francis preached his first homily in the small Church of St. Anna in the Vatican. He said āMercy is Christās most important message.ā Pope Francis has never ceased to speak of Godās Mercy since.
If Mercy is Christās most important message, then Mercy is the first and fundamental message that a child attending Catholic school must receive: that God is our all-merciful Father and that the fullness of humanity for us lies in becoming ever more profoundly āMerciful like the Fatherā. What a difference we would then make to other people and to our world.
The word Mercy is a beautiful word. The Latin word is āMisericordiaā. This literally means āhaving a heart for the misery thatās in our worldā.
That misery is everywhere, clearly. We have all felt it in our own lives and it is all around us. Every child has shed bitter tears. To have a heart for all of this is the most positive and critical thing we can teach our children. If we do, then they will be able to reach out and bring comfort to others; and on top of that they will be able to cope with and accept any misery that visits themselves.
The theme for Catholic Schools Week this year is āCatholic Schools: Challenged to Proclaim Godās Mercyā. A 16 year old student on spotting a notice on her school notice board announcing this theme last week remarked to a teacher close by, āWhoās challenging us?ā Now thereās a question. If we are to be āFaithā schools, āCatholicā schools, then surely we believe so strongly in our students that we do in fact challenge them, and call them forth to do what the Act of Contrition we teach them for 1st Holy Communion says: Help me to live like Jesus. Jesus is the Mercy of God incarnate. He gave and gave up everything for the sake of our happiness.
We saw today in the Gospel we have just read that his own people couldnāt accept what Jesus was teaching. They couldnāt take up the challenge. The Gospel of Mercy and of Love is not easy. But young people appreciate and love a challenge. It is the role of our schools to set before young people the challenge of Mercy and of Love, the Love that is spelt out in that powerful second reading today from St. Paul, āLove is always patient, always kind, never jealous, never selfish, never takes offense.ā A tall order. But young people love a tall order.
The journey from childhood to being grown-up is the one on which our schools accompany our young people, working hand in hand with their families. Itās the journey out of self-preoccupation and into Love for others and for the world, the most challenging journey of all: to Grow in Love after the heart of Jesus. Our schools will do this when the systems we put in place and the spirit that animates is Mercy, the Spirit of Jesus, who is Merciful like the Father. Thatās the spirit we are praying this week that will, in all things, animate our schools: schools that invariably have a heart for any misery in its peoplesā lives and in the lives of the people and the world all around us.
Bishop Brendan Kelly of Achonry.