Page 4 - Catholic Extension Magazine - Spring 2016

4 Le er from Father Wall
TLet us rediscover God’s mercy this year
As Father Domínguez points out, in this Year of Mercy, the Church is calling us to rediscover the sac- rament of reconciliation, which in a very special way invites us to experience directly the power of God’s merciful love for us. is sacrament has always made me aware of the various disconnects of reality in our lives — times when we don’t feel that sense of community we long for, times when we feel that we are missing the mark. Going to confession makes us re ect on how we let other forces in life keep us from that sense of commu- nity or oneness with God and our neighbors.
e word “confession” also has that other deeper,
the injured man in the ditch and who, by extension, need to reach out to anyone who is in front of us. And that gospel story also illustrates that answering His call must transcend our many human divisions between outsider “Samaritans” and our own “in-groups.”
In this issue we look at some of the many ways in which Catholic faith com-
THIS YEAR OF MERCY CALLS munities around the country us to re ect more deeply on are answering Jesus’ call and what it means to be follow- are becoming such neighbors
ers of Christ in this time and age and ultimately to better understand God. Pope Francis has called mercy the “essence of the gospel” and Pope Bene- dict XVI has said that “mercy is the very name of God, the face with which He revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.”
e cover of this issue of Extension magazine de-
picts the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) in which Jesus called His listeners to mercy. In response to the question “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus shows us that we are the ones who need to be neighbors to
of mercy to those in need (see stories beginning on page 18). With their corporal and spiritual works of mercy (listed on page 18), they make God’s love manifest
in their communities: In Bismarck, North Dakota, Benedictine Sister Kathleen Atkinson and her Ministry on the Margins “visit the imprisoned.” In Laredo, Tex- as, a group of parishioners called the Samaritans “visit the sick.” In Lenoir, North Carolina, Father Julio C. Domínguez “forgives o ens- es willingly” and, as a result, has seen parishioners ock to the sacrament of reconcil- iation. And on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, Geraldine Provencial and her ministry of mercy “comfort the sorrowful.”