JUBILEE YEAR OF MERCY 

NEARLY OVER

December 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016

YEAR OF JUBILEE

Here at Trinity Church Supply, we have been celebrating the Jubilee Year of Mercy. The Jubilee Year of Mercy (declared by Pope Francis, and begun on December 8, 1915) comes to a close this Sunday. This particular Jubilee Year was called an “extraordinary jubilee” since it fell outside of the normal cycle.

On the feast of Christ the King, November 20, 2016, the pope will close the Holy Door of Mercy. That action will mark the end of this most unique jubilee year.

The jubilee years were celebrated every 50 years in Jewish life and ancient Hebrew practice. The law required (see Lev. 25:8-55) that the 50^th year (the year after the seven-times-seven [49+1] years) be treated as “sacred”. Among other things, properties were returned to their original owners; families came together; farmlands and gardens were not plowed nor sown—the ground rested (a Sabbath for the land [Lev. 25:2-4]) and so did the agricultural workers.

The inhabitants could eat whatever “volunteer” plants and produce that came up. (This part actually happened every 7 years, as a “Sabbath” for the land to allow it to be idle.) Land and workers were to both “rest” and “rest in the Lord”… meaning: depend upon Him for what they normally had to labor over and work for.

How would God provide? He answers in Lev. 25: 20-22. “And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or reap our crop?’ I will command such a blessing for you in the sixth year that there will be crop enough for 3 years, and when you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the old crop; even into the ninth year, until the crop comes in…”

Some of God’s people through the ages—even in our current age— have experienced some remarkable moves of God in their lives—not so dissimilar to the above passages described in Leviticus. God’s specific answers for provision in modern times are not precisely spelled out in the Bible, but they are real and sure nonetheless, as we seek and follow Him.

RECEIVING AND GIVING THE MERCY OF GOD

In this last week of the Jubilee Year, we will take a brief look again at “mercy”.

We are called in Micah 6:8 to “love mercy”. It is vital to our life in Christ that we learn to welcome, receive and get in the flow of giving mercy as God desires us to give it. Maybe we need to start by first loving God’s great mercy toward us… and receiving it gratefully. Then, as we become more aware of our total dependence on God’s mercy, we may (unlike the unforgiving servant in the gospel) choose to be generous with our attitudes, words and deeds to “love [giving] mercy” toward others.

THE JUBILEE YEAR OF MERCY comes to a close, but God’s mercy is unfailingly and unendingly still available. Pope Francis had chosen the motto for this Jubilee Year:

“Merciful like the Father” [Luke 6:36]…

“We want to live in the light of the word of the Lord: ‘Be merciful, even as your heavenly Father is merciful’ (cf. Luke 6:36).” The pope commented, “It is indeed my wish that the Jubilee be a living experience of the closeness of the Father, whose tenderness is almost tangible, so that the faith of every believer may be strengthened and thus testimony to it be ever more effective.” [taken from Year of Mercy Website/ Holy Father’s Apostolic Letter]

THE FATHER’S LOVE

We can receive God’s mercy (meaning: “compassion”; “forbearance”; “leniency”; “gifted love”) and find new peace.

“…Pope Benedict told us on Divine Mercy Sunday 2007: ‘Peace is the gift that Christ left his friends (cf. Jn 14:27) as a blessing destined for all men and women and for all peoples. It is not a peace according to a ‘worldly’ mentality, as an equilibrium of forces, but a new reality, fruit of God’s love, of his mercy. It is the peace that Jesus earned by the price of his Blood and communicates to those who trust in him.” 1

Even our doubts, fears, and incomplete trust—when surrendered to Christ and put under His blood-bought grace— can experience the greatness of His mercy and cleansing. Isaiah said, “Our just deeds are like polluted rags.” [Isa. 64:5]

… But He can make up the difference for our failings! He already has! It is His perfect righteousness, and not our own, on which we depend and lean… His price paid... for us to receive our spotless “wedding garment”. ([Luke 22:11] The only “Way” and “Door” back to God is through Jesus Christ and His blood that cleanses our sin [Isa. 1:18] “as white as snow” and covers us (His bride) as with that stunningly white (“as snow” [Dan. 7:9; Mt. 28:3; Mk. 9:3]*) (wedding) garment… like the one Jesus, Himself, wears*. After all, it is His perfect, glorious, pure white garment that covers us and makes us acceptable to the Father—who already loves us long before we turn to Him or repent.

Like the caring and watchful parent, God seeks to make up the difference between what we can be and do—and what we cannot/ are not—at any given stage of growth. A good parent does more for the 3-month old than for the 15 year old. Care is adjusted to need. God’s immeasurable love covers that. “Cast all your worries [cares] on Him for He cares for you.” [1Pet. 5:7]

We all live standing on the foundations of the richness of God’s great mercy—the indescribable gift of love and continuous forgiveness that is vastly beyond our full understanding. But so often, we live oblivious to that fact. We find ourselves assuming many things, and blindly ungrateful for so much. We easily get caught up in the whirlwinds of the busy-ness of our lives and of the world around us, and come to expect (as if we simply deserve… as in “entitlement”) the gifts that God gives out of amazing generosity, unimaginable mercy, and unfathomable love.

While God has shown that He wants us to confidently rest in His love and faith-full-y expect His kindness, forgiveness, and generosity, gratitude on our part needs to be the fabric of our approach. Gratitude expresses a recognition that is essential to our asking and receiving all the graces and blessings that the Lord in His love and power desires to give. Our magnificent, mighty God—through the “Door” of the Savior-Son’s price paid through His tortured passion, excruciating crucifixion and glorious resurrection—continues to mercifully enter in to this world’s messes and fallen places, as we seek Him. God deeply desires that we enter into new realms of peace, freedom and intimacy with Him.

Last year, Trinity Church Supply had the timely MAGNIFICAT YEAR OF MERCY COMPANION available for customers. In it, on page 23, Jean Vanier wrote:

“[Jesus] comes to make us free, to give us the freedom of the Spirit. …He takes away the yoke that crushes our shoulders… [H]e renders… problems very light if we let the Spirit come into us. ‘Come to Me, all you who labor, and rest.’

If we are firmly convinced how weak and incapable we are, how our decisions are frequently tainted by egocentric motivations, how unfaithful we are to the Spirit, how sinful and unloving we really are, he will transform our hearts and give us a new strength. Conscious of our weakness, we must at the same time maintain a living and burning hope, and a confidence that he is with us; that he helps us, that he loves us and guides us…

Only when I discover that [God] loves me in spite of all my infidelities, when I really discover the mercy of God to me, only then shall I discover the true, compassionate face of Jesus: only then shall I discover that I was a captive… I am the one who had the yoke on my shoulders and yet did not know it: I was blind.”

The Lord wants us to face wrongdoing in the rich atmosphere of His merciful love. It helps to remember that God does not want us to dwell on our weaknesses and failures as the final focus of our gaze. He wants us to be mindful of our sins and faults and be honest—with ourselves and with Him—in order to turn quickly and continually to Him.

He, Himself—in all His mercy, kindness and generous compassion—is the heart of our gaze! He desires to help us in and through our weaknesses and failures.

He so desires to forgive and help us with any need or lack, as any good and loving parent does.

As we continue to lean on Him, we can learn just how much He loves us. We know that He always has graces available to those who ask. We can even find out how much He desires to work with us—by removing obstacles to serving and following and obeying Him… and by enabling us to remove obstacles that are in our power to remove.

THE BLESSINGS OF MERCY—SUCH A GIFT!

As measureless (and “new every morning”) as God’s mercy is, we could write endlessly on the topic. But time is short for all of us!

“My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is…But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness… It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” [Lam. 3:17, 21-23,26].

Some have called this “God’s gift-card” of love and mercy. So… Let’s not let this gift-card go unspent!

“The Lord’s acts of mercy are not exhausted, his compassion is not spent; they are renewed each morning—great is your faithfulness!” [Lam 3:22-23]

His acts are far beyond our comprehension, so let us simply be more intent on receiving the abundant mercy it pleases the Father to give, and worry less about understanding the mind-boggling generosity of our God!

Let us not miss 'so great a salvation' that our Savior so willingly paid for with inscrutable suffering… Let us make sure—in each of our own lives—that this “Gift card” we (each, personally) have been given, does not remain unredeemed and unspent. The price has been fully paid! It is left up to us what we will choose to seek and receive as we walk humbly with Him.

Mercy was bought at the price of the life and death of the only truly Just One who ever lived. He is the One whose perfect Justice (which, by rights, could have brought us all to a very different end) was triumphantly trumped by the vast richness of His merciful love. That love was tangibly manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us gladly throw ourselves into the heart of this vast and willing mercy of God… continually…

Even as this "Year of Mercy" ends, 

the call to mercy--

and the richness of God's mercy

--has no end.

We continue to have the welcome opportunity to focus on the depth of kindness that the Father IS… that the Father gives… and wants us to both receive and to give for the rest of our lives!

FOOTNOTES:

1-POPE BENEDICT’S DIVINE MERCY MANDATE, by David Came, Marian Press, Stockbridge, MA 01263, pp. 66-7.