Given at the service to open the Door of Mercy at St Patrick's Church, Soho Square, on 12 December 2015, at the Vigil Mass of Gaudete Sunday.
The deep desire within the human heart is to be loved and to love. We search restlessly for such love. Sometimes love is found in the wrong places or in the wrong ways. We might remember the tortuous path which St Augustine followed before he turned to the God of Jesus Christ who had invited him to respond and he became a Christian. Francis Thompson in his poem The Hound of Heaven likens God to a hound who pursues us and follows after us to call us into his love from which we so often flee wanting to be in charge and determine the future. In Holman Hunt’s famous picture of Christ the Light of the World, Christ knocks on an old door covered in briars and thorns which has not been opened for many years and waits the owner to open the door. He stands waiting to be invited in and welcomed, so that he might sit down, speak heart-to-heart and share his gifts with him.
This evening as I open the Door of Mercy in this great church here in the centre of London at the very centre of the night economy, these images remind us of the abundant and generous mercy of God which reaches out to each one of us. Mercy is that form of love which reaches out to the person in need, the person who is living in misery, whose heart is troubled and seeks solace. The opening of the door is a reminder of the way in which God’s mercy reaches out to all here and invites them to come and rest in him. God has led each one of us here this evening and by his own path invites us to place our trust in him and allow us to receive the gift of his mercy.
Pope Francis speaks into our hearts and tells us, ‘Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy’. We are invited to look at Jesus, and there see he way he reveals God’s mercy; in seeking out lost souls in parables of lost sheep and mislaid coin; by taking the woman bent double by her hand and helping her to stand up straight, in the Generous Father who welcomes home the prodigal son, in the many accounts of the forgiveness of sins and healing of hearts.
John the Baptist proclaims the coming of God’s mercy, Jesus Christ, in the barrenness and wilderness of the desert of the Judean hills around Jerusalem. He proclaims a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repent means to turn around and put on a new mind and a new heart; just like St Augustine came to his senses and turned to the Lord, just as we open the door and allow Christ to enter.
In today’s gospel John the Baptist looks at the lives of those who come to him and demands a response. The tax collectors are called to justice, ‘exact no more than your rate’ – don’t be greedy and take a little extra for yourself; the soldiers are told not to intimate people but treat them with respect as equals. They are particular calls to people in their unique situation. More importantly, he identifies that a Saviour will come to forgive their sins and be gracious in mercy towards them. We stand in need of that mercy because we are fallen, sinners, fail in our love towards others, may be unjust and do not speak or live truthfully. Each one of us is called in our particular situation to repent and change. We need God’s help and mercy because we hold a great gift in earthenware vessels and are very fragile.
The invitation of this year of mercy is to know that you are infinitely loved by God whoever you are and whatever you have done. Each person is a unique work of art created by God to love others. God’s mercy means that when we fail we can return to him in the sacrament of reconciliation and confession and be forgiven. His mercy will restore us and make us new. Christ the New Adam takes away the sin of the Old Adam, of Everyman so that a person may be a child of God. It is this wonderful gift that we proclaim today by the opening of the Door of Mercy. May each one of you come to know more deeply in your heart the gaze of God towards you, the face of Jesus who loves you, the mercy that forgives you and so trust in the future knowing that Jesus walks with you leading you by strings of love towards the Father. Always and forever – the Door of Mercy is always open for you and for all.