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Mercy and the external expressions of internal truth
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November 2, 2015
Most Reverend Michael Mulvey is bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
In September, along with several pilgrims from our diocese, I attended various events connected with the visit of Pope Francis to the United States. When people ask me which of the pope’s addresses was my favorite, I tell them it was the speech the Holy Father gave to the Joint Session of the United States Congress. That speech expressed and identified the contemporary dilemma that we face as a society today, namely, the disconnect we have between our internal spiritual reality and how we express ourselves externally.
Watching the pope enter the congressional chamber was like watching the soul of humanity enter into a house of legislation. Of course, just laws and the maintenance of good order are vital to any human society. We in the United States are fortunate that our society still strives to respect the rule of law and the common good. Nonetheless, many of our laws, and for that matter mandates, need to be rooted in the Natural and Divine Law written in the heart of every person.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was challenged regarding his lack of observing the ritual of washing. Rather than merely rebuke his host, he offers a poignant answer regarding the externals of life and the internal spirit of the human person. Christ called them, and calls us, to strive for a harmony between spiritual truths found within and the outward expressions of them (Lk 11:37ff).
“Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?” He continued to unveil their hypocrisy in the following verses.
The message of the Gospel that our Holy Father presented to the Congress of the United States expressed the internal truths of human nature to those responsible for regulating our American society’s external functioning.
It is important to keep in mind that external expressions in and of themselves are not evil. In fact, external expressions and actions can be beautiful expressions of the truth of the human person. God created us to be both spiritual and physical. Yet it is when these are not in conformity with God’s Divine Law that they become shallow expressions devoid of the true dignity that he has bestowed on each human person. The internal spirit of every human person bears the image and likeness of God. Thus, the human person, capable of love and called to love, must never be treated as a means to another’s selfish ends. External expressions, whether by ourselves, by others or directed towards others, must always respect and protect this eternal truth of human dignity.
While our society is in great need to hear this truth, it also seems equally unable to break itself of the temptation to judge others only according to the external, devoid of the internal truth that must accompany it. It is precisely this that Pope Francis brought into the legislative chamber of the U.S. Congress.
Throughout his visit to the United States, Pope Francis modeled this harmony between the internal and external through his transparency, his honesty and living what he preaches. When asked in one of his interviews “as Jorge Bergoglio, who are you?” he responded immediately, “I am a sinner.” He was not ashamed to admit externally the truth that he knows internally–that he, like all of us, falls short of the glory of God (cf. Rm 3:23) but that he is, like all of us, on the journey of Christian life to synchronize our internal beauty as children of God with our external actions. The Christian life is nothing less than striving to “have the same attitude as Christ (cf. Phil 2:5), ” to see ourselves and others as Christ sees us, to treat ourselves and others as Christ would, since we are in Christ.
This is why the Church, in her wisdom, encourages us to do a daily examination of conscience, particularly at the end of the day. It is our opportunity to examine what is both internal–how we have stayed in union with God or not–and what is external–how we have expressed ourselves with the attitude of Christ or not.
As we approach the Holy Jubilee Year of Mercy, we begin to prepare for that time when so many hearts can be returned to Christ. We should each look at ourselves and ask: do my external behaviors, particularly the way in which I treat others at home or at work, truly witness to who I am inside as a child of God? Do I allow that internal relationship with Jesus Christ to be expressed sincerely in my relationship to others?
The Holy Year of Mercy is truly a call from our heavenly Father through the Church to examine ourselves, to open ourselves, and to reflect in ourselves and in our external actions that mercy which Christ Jesus has shown to us through his death on the cross. It is our call to show that same mercy to countless others, so that they too may find their way home to the Father’s love.
