My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Our Lenten season has begun. In the Old Testament reading at Mass on Ash Wednesday, the Prophet Joel reminded the people to "return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is He." Then, in the Responsorial Psalm we joined King David's plea for God's mercy from Psalm 51 as we proclaimed, "Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned."

This particular theme of God's mercy as described in the Sacred Scriptures is a very fitting focus for our Lenten observance during this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy as proclaimed by Pope Francis. In his document announcing this Year of Mercy, the Holy Father wrote, "As we can see in Sacred Scripture, mercy is a key word that indicates God's action towards us. He does not limit himself merely to affirming his love, but makes it visible and tangible. Love, after all, can never be just an abstraction. By its very nature, it indicates something concrete: intentions, attitudes, and behaviors that are shown in daily living. ... As the Father loves, so do his children. Just as he is merciful, so we are called to be merciful to each other."

A very effective way for us to make mercy a concrete reality in our lives and not just an abstraction is by practicing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Holy Father reminds us that "Jesus introduces us to these works of mercy in his preaching so that we can know whether or not we are living as his disciples. Let us rediscover these corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. And let us not forget the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offenses, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead."

In our highly organized culture, we have quite effectively established institutions that carry out these works of mercy. Some of these institutions are religious, while others are secular or governmental. Here in Springfield, for example, we have St. John's Breadline and Catholic Charities Mobile Food Pantry to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty. The St. Martin de Porres Center provides clothing, food and household items for those in need. St. John's Hospital and other health care providers focus on healing the sick, prison chaplains visit the imprisoned, and many fine funeral directors and cemetery workers literally bury the dead. National and international organizations like Catholic Relief Services, Migration and Refugee Services of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Habitat for Humanity practice the corporal works of mercy as well.

The spiritual works of mercy are also provided by many professional people in full-time vocations such as teachers, authors, counselors and clergy who teach us, instruct us, counsel us, console us, inspire us, pray for us and reconcile us with God and with each other.

The downside of the fact that the corporal and spiritual works of mercy are so effectively organized into institutional responses, however, is that we may tend to leave these works of mercy to the institutions and think that we are absolved of any individual responsibility, or we may relegate our individual response to making monetary donations to provide financial support for these charitable institutions. That is well and good and certainly needed, but we should also remember that the stewardship and discipleship way of life involves our own time and talent, as well as our treasure. Thus, for example, in addition to making charitable donations, we can volunteer our time to help serve meals at St. John's Breadline or distribute clothing or food at the St. Martin de Porres Center. We can visit the sick who are hospitalized or who are in nursing homes or who are homebound. We "bury the dead" by going to wakes and funerals.

We can also practice the spiritual works of mercy in our daily lives. Parents, for example, can counsel their own children when they express doubts about the faith and instruct them in the Christian way of life. Friends can admonish each other and provide fraternal correction in a charitable manner. All of us can comfort those who are grieving the death of a loved one, forgive those who hurt us, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead.

In these 40 days of Lent, as we see more clearly the high ethical ideals and moral demands of discipleship, we come to realize our total dependence on God's grace and our profound need of salvation.

May God give us this grace. Amen.