Homily for February 6th, 2018: 1 Kings 8:22-23,
27-30.
“Listen to the
petitions of your servant and of your people Israel
which they offer in this place,” Solomon prays at the dedication of the Temple . To pray that God
will hear the petitions offered in the Temple
is what we would expect. But then comes something we do not expect: “Listen
from your heavenly dwelling -- and grant pardon.”
Solomon’s
prayer reminds us that whenever we approach God, the first thing we need to ask
for is pardon for our sins. None of us is worthy to enter into the presence of
the all-holy God. That is why the first thing we do in every Mass is to ask
forgiveness for our sins, and implore God’s mercy.
Our wonderful
Pope Francis has made prayer for God’s mercy central in his preaching.
Repeatedly, and in different ways, the Pope tells us: God never grows tired of
forgiving us; it is we who grow tired of asking for forgiveness.
It appears
that this theme is rooted in the Pope’s personal history. At age thirty-six
Jorge Bergoglio was put in charge of all the Jesuits in Argentina . The
country was under a cruel military government. They arrested hundreds of people
they did not like, perhaps thousands, and without trial flew them in planes
over the South Atlantic and dropped them into
the sea. Many Jesuits embraced something called liberation theology, putting
political action and protest before traditional priestly duties: administering
the sacraments and preaching the gospel.
Guiding his Jesuit brothers along the
right path in this chaotic and perilous situation would have been difficult
even for a much older man with greater experience than Fr. Bergoglio. Some
Jesuits were clearly over the line. To protect them he forbade his brothers to
provoke the authorities by living in the slums and engaging in political
protest. Inevitably this provoked charges that he was “soft on injustice.” Over
time Bergoglio came to feel that he may have been too rigid, and that his
treatment of his Jesuit brothers who confronted the military regime in Argentina ,
and embraced the cause of the poor, had perhaps been too harsh. This continues
to weigh on him today, as Pope Francis. It helps us to understand his constant
emphasis on our need for forgiveness.
Regardless of our personal history,
we all need to pray for God’s mercy and forgiveness. And Pope Francis is right
to remind us that this prayer is one that God will always answer.
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