A Pope with the Christian Spirit

The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all.

-- Pope Francis

I love to hear the Pope speaking about mercy instead of doctrine. To me, the core of Christianity is the forgiveness of sin: the insistence that everyone is a sinner, but God nonetheless extends his mercy to all who seek it.

When I contemplate what might be lost in a secular world, I always come back to the religious quality of mercy. I sense in my fellow humans a disturbing vindictiveness and love of punishment, a horror at anyone "getting away with" crime, that I think needs to be tempered with mercy. If it does not come from religion, where will it come from?

I remember a story many years ago about two children of an immigrant woman found spending their days alone in a storage locker while their mother worked. This provoked one of those proverbial "storms of indignation." Condemnation was in the air; all sorts of dire punishments were suggested for the mother. It was left to a spokeswoman from the Maryland Council of Ministers to say that they were trying to contact the woman to find out what sort of help she might need.