God’s mercy, shown in gestures

The Fiducia Supplicans Declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings has aroused great controversy within the Church, the document wants to be “a tribute to the faithful People of God, who adore the Lord with so many gestures of profound trust in his mercy and who, with this attitude, constantly come to ask Mother Church for a blessing.”

This first expression of the declaration is very beautiful in emphasizing that it is a “tribute to the faithful People of God” who experience his closeness through simple gestures and who expect to be welcomed as they are, in their diversity, in their way of loving and believing.

Blessing is an endearing practice because through it we receive God’s caress, as our mothers did with us, no child is lost, none is lost, nor “strange”, all are embraced by their inner beings.

On several occasions I have had the opportunity to meet, share, and say goodbye to homosexual people and in them I have discovered an inner well of much suffering, especially for not being accepted socially or for not accepting oneself either, the long process of accepting their different way of loving is not easy. However, when they come to accept themselves as they are, they can live fully and integrally, sometimes I have perceived a double standard, that is to say, rigidity only for some and not recognizing the shadows present in the Church itself.

On one occasion a very dear friend asked me to bless her and her partner, who was also a woman, this produced in me a certain internal commotion because prior to this gesture there was a whole prelude of pain, tears, of kneeling before me, and I asked myself who was I not to welcome them and bless them? This experience made me feel a deep compassion for the difficult process she had to go through, to assume herself as different and to inaugurate in herself a different way of relating and being, this experience made me reflect on my need to open my heart, free myself from my prejudices and feel that God, through such a humble gesture of blessing, was blessing them and loving them dearly.

Jesus made no distinction and welcomes us all equally, so our Church, faithful to its Master, must have the same attitude towards all human beings and make them feel that all are welcome in this home particularly those who carry a history of rejection and discrimination.

Sister Jacqueline Sothers MDR.

Community of Calama- Chile.