Bishop prays people are more merciful after Year of Mercy

 As he closed the Jubilee Year of Mercy in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Bishop Michael Mulvey observed that it had been "an extraordinary time of grace and mercy." The Extraordinary Year of Mercy actually closes on Nov. 20, but Pope Francis asked that all the Holy Doors throughout the world close before that day.
 
Bishop Mulvey explained that the bishops of the United States are scheduled to hold their national meeting in Baltimore next week and that is why the closing of the doors in the diocese took place this past week. During the week Bishop Mulvey traveled to Alice (St. Elizabeth), Beeville (St. Joseph), Kingsville (St. Joseph) and Lamar (Schoenstatt Chapel) to close the doors at designated pilgrim churches in the diocese.
 
He thanked these pilgrim churches for being "so wonderful in welcoming pilgrims to their doors, sitting with them and praying with them." He also thanked priests for offering extended time for the sacrament of reconciliation.
 
"I pray that it has been a powerful year. Meditating on God's mercy, but also receiving and giving, participating in God's mercy," the bishop said.
 
'The question for us this morning is, are we more merciful, have we learned anything about mercy, is our heart in the same position as it was 11 months ago, is our mind still filled with the same thoughts…?" Bishop Mulvey asked. "Or has their been any conversion in our lives."
 
The bishop said that God is merciful and wants to give his mercy to all. The question is whether people today are in the same condition as before or are they experiencing something different in their hearts, in their lives, in their minds, in their attitude, in their speech and in their thoughts.
 
He reminded the congregation at the 9:30 a.m. Mass at the Corpus Christi Cathedral on Nov. 6, that Pope Francis had said in opening the Year of Mercy that "Jesus Christ is the face of God's mercy."
 
These words, Bishop Mulvey said, sum up the mystery of the Cristian faith; it is about Jesus Christ, his words reflecting God's mercy in the world today.
 
"Something, hopefully, had moved inside of us," the bishop said, referring to the yearlong focus on mercy. Too often, he said, "We judge, we condemn, we instruct when we don’t know people. But this year of mercy has called us to a new mentality. His Gospel confronts the mentality of the day."
 
"When we look at the Gospel, we should always see where mercy is expressed," Bishop Mulvey said. "Cannot mercy create miracles in people's lives? Cannot it soften our hearts and change minds? Mercy is the face of God in Jesus Christ for us. If we are truly to be people who know about Jesus…we must have the mind and heart of Jesus Christ."
 
A disciple, the bishop said, is one who enters into the life of the teacher and allows the teacher to come into his own life. "Christ must live in us. That is the invitation," he said.
 
"As we close the doors, we open our hearts to a new way of life; to allow Jesus to operate in us, to approach every person with mercy," Bishop Mulvey said.
 
He said that people must show mercy to each person they meet, the same mercy that they have received.
 
"What is supreme in life, above any government, is God's mercy," he said. "We are called to confront the mentality of the world with God's mercy. I ask that not a day go by without showing mercy. May our lives be new, may they change, may we always reflect the mercy of God through Jesus."