Be
Ministers of Mercy
LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER
POPE JOHN PAUL II
TO PRIESTS
FOR HOLY THURSDAY 2002
Dear Priests,
1. With deep emotion I am sending you this
traditional Holy Thursday Letter, taking my seat
beside you as it were at the table in the Upper
Room at which the Lord Jesus celebrated with his
Apostles the first Eucharist: a gift to the
whole Church, a gift which, although veiled by
sacramental signs, makes him “really, truly and
substantially” present (Council of Trent: DS
1651) in every tabernacle throughout the world.
Before this unique presence, the Church bows
down in adoration: “Adoro te devote, latens
Deitas”; she is unceasingly moved by the
spiritual raptures of the Saints and, as the
Bride, she assembles in an intimate outpouring
of faith and love: “Ave, verum corpus natum de
Maria Virgine”.
To the gift of this singular presence, which
brings him to us in his supreme sacrifice and
makes him our bread, Jesus, in the Upper Room,
associated a specific duty of the Apostles and
their successors. From that time on, to be an
apostle of Christ, as are the Bishops and the
priests sharing in their mission, has involved
being able to act in persona Christi Capitis.
This happens above all whenever the sacrificial
meal of the Body and the Blood of the Lord is
celebrated. For then the priest as it were lends
Christ his own face and voice: “Do this in
memory of me” (Lk 22:19).
How marvellous is this vocation of ours, my dear
Brother Priests! Truly we can repeat with the
Psalmist: “What shall I render to the Lord for
all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of
salvation and call upon the name of the Lord”
(Ps 116:12-13).
2. Joyfully meditating once again on this gift,
I would like this year to speak to you about an
aspect of our mission to which I called your
attention last year at this same time. I believe
that it warrants further reflection. I mean the
mission which the Lord has given us to represent
him not just in the Eucharistic Sacrifice but
also in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Between the two sacraments there is a profound
relationship. The Eucharist, the summit of the
sacramental economy, is also its source: all the
sacraments in a sense spring from the Eucharist
and lead back to it. This is true in a special
way of the sacrament charged with “mediating”
the forgiveness of God, who welcomes the
repentant sinner back into his embrace. It is
true that as a re-enactment of Christ's
Sacrifice, the Eucharist also serves to deliver
us from sin. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church reminds us: “The Eucharist cannot unite
us to Christ without at the same time cleansing
us from past sins and preserving us from future
sins” (No. 1393). Nevertheless, in the economy
of grace willed by Christ, this purifying power,
while it directly cleanses from venial sins,
only indirectly cleanses from mortal sins, which
radically compromise the believer's relationship
with God and his communion with the Church. “The
Eucharist,” the Catechism continues, “is not
ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins. That
is proper to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those
who are in full communion with the Church” (No.
1395).
In insisting on this truth, the Church in no way
wishes to detract from the role of the
Eucharist. Her intention is to grasp its
significance in relation to the whole
sacramental economy as instituted by God's
saving wisdom. This, after all, is what Saint
Paul clearly indicated when writing to the
Corinthians: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks
the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will
be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the
Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of
the bread and drink of the cup.
For any one who eats and drinks without
discerning the body eats and drinks judgement
upon himself” (1 Cor 11:27-29). In line with
this admonition of Saint Paul is the principle
which states that “anyone conscious of a grave
sin must receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation
before coming to communion” (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, No. 1385).
3. My dear Brothers in the Priesthood: in
recalling this truth, I feel a pressing need to
urge you, as I did last year, to rediscover for
yourselves and to help others to rediscover the
beauty of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In
recent decades and for a variety of reasons,
this sacrament has passed through something of a
crisis. More than once I have drawn attention to
this fact, even making it the theme of a
gathering of the Synod of Bishops, whose
reflections I then presented in the Apostolic
Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia.
On the other hand, I cannot fail to acknowledge
with deep joy the positive signs which, in the
Jubilee Year especially, have shown that this
sacrament, when suitably presented and
celebrated, can have a broad appeal, even among
the young. Its appeal is enhanced by the need
for personal contact, something that is becoming
increasingly scarce in the hectic pace of
today's technological society, but which for
this very reason is increasingly experienced as
a vital need. Certainly, this need can be met in
various ways. But how can we fail to recognize
that the Sacrament of Reconciliation – without
confusing it with any of the various forms of
psychological therapy – offers an
extraordinarily rich response to this need? It
does so by bringing the penitent into contact
with the merciful heart of God through the
friendly face of a brother.
Yes, great indeed is the wisdom of God, who by
instituting this sacrament has made provision
for a profound and unremitting need of the human
heart. We are meant to be loving and enlightened
interpreters of this wisdom though the personal
contact we are called to have with so many
brothers and sisters in the celebration of
Penance. In this regard, I wish to repeat that
the usual form of administering this sacrament
is its individual celebration, and only in
“cases of grave necessity” is it lawful to
employ the communal form with general confession
and absolution. The conditions required for this
form of absolution are well known; but perhaps
we should remember that for absolution to be
valid the faithful must have the intention of
subsequently confessing their grave sins
individually (cf. Catechism of the Catholic
Church, No. 1483).
4. With joy and trust let us rediscover this
sacrament. Let us experience it above all for
ourselves, as a deeply-felt need and as a grace
which we constantly look for, in order to
restore vigour and enthusiasm to our journey of
holiness and to our ministry.
At the same time, let us make every effort to be
true ministers of mercy. We know that in this
sacrament, as in others, we are called to be
agents of a grace which comes not from us but
from on high and works by its own inner power.
In other words – and this is a great
responsibility – God counts on us, on our
availability and fidelity, in order to work his
wonders in human hearts. In the celebration of
this sacrament, perhaps even more than in the
others, it is important that the faithful have
an intense experience of the face of Christ the
Good Shepherd.
Allow me therefore to speak to you on this
theme, imagining as it were all the places –
cathedrals, parishes, shrines or elsewhere – in
which you are daily engaged in administering
this sacrament. Our minds turn to the pages of
the Gospel which reveal most directly the
merciful face of God. How can we fail to think
of the moving meeting between the prodigal son
and his forgiving Father? Or the image of the
sheep which was lost and then found, and which
the Shepherd joyfully lifts onto his shoulders?
The Father's embrace and the Good Shepherd's joy
must be visible in each one of us, dear
Brothers, whenever a penitent asks us to become
ministers of forgiveness.
In order to bring out certain specific aspects
of the unique saving dialogue that is
sacramental confession, I would like to use the
“biblical icon” of the meeting between Jesus and
Zacchaeus (cf. Lk 19:1-10). To me it seems that
what takes place between Jesus and the “chief
tax collector” of Jericho resembles in a number
of ways the celebration of the sacrament of
mercy. As we follow this brief but powerful
story, we try to capture in Christ's demeanour
and in his voice all those nuances of wisdom,
both human and supernatural, which we too must
strive to communicate if the sacrament is to be
celebrated in the best possible way.
5. The story, as we know, presents the meeting
between Jesus and Zacchaeus as if it happened by
chance. Jesus enters Jericho and moves through
the city accompanied by the crowd (cf. Lk 19:3).
In climbing the sycamore tree, Zacchaeus seems
prompted by curiosity alone. At times, God's
meetings with man do appear to be merely
fortuitous. But nothing that God does happens by
chance. Surrounded by a wide variety of pastoral
situations, we can sometimes lose heart and
motivation because so many Christians pay too
little attention to the sacramental life, and
even when they do approach the sacraments, they
often do so in a superficial way. Those who hear
many confessions and see how people ordinarily
approach the sacrament can be disconcerted by
the way certain penitents come to confession
without even a clear idea of what they want.
Some come only because they feel the need to be
listened to. Others because they want advice
about something. Others have a psychological
need to be released from burdensome feelings of
guilt. Many, on the other hand, feel a real need
to restore their relationship with God, but they
confess without being really aware of the
obligations which this entails. They may make a
poor examination of conscience because they have
little knowledge of the implications of a moral
life inspired by the Gospel. Is there any
confessor who has not had this experience?
This is precisely the case of Zacchaeus.
Everything that happens to him is amazing. If
there had not been, at a certain point, the
“surprise” of Christ looking up at him, perhaps
he would have remained a silent spectator of the
Lord moving through the streets of Jericho.
Jesus would have passed by, not into, his life.
Zacchaeus had no idea that the curiosity which
had prompted him to do such an unusual thing was
already the fruit of a mercy which had preceded
him, attracted him and was about to change him
in the depths of his heart.
Dear Priests, with so many of our penitents in
mind, let us re-read Luke's magnificent account
of how Christ behaved: “When Jesus came to the
place, he looked up and said to him, `Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down; for I must stay at
your house today'” (Lk 19:5).
Every encounter with someone wanting to go to
confession, even when the request is somewhat
superficial because it is poorly motivated and
prepared, can become, through the surprising
grace of God, that “place” near the sycamore
tree where Christ looked up at Zacchaeus. How
deeply Christ's gaze penetrated the Jericho
publican's soul is impossible for us to judge.
But we do know that that same gaze looks upon
each of our penitents. In the Sacrament of
Reconciliation we are agents of a supernatural
encounter with laws of its own, an encounter
which we have only to respect and facilitate.
For Zacchaeus, it must have been an stunning
experience to hear himself called by his name, a
name which many of his townsmen spoke with
contempt. Now he hears it spoken in a tone of
tenderness, expressing not just trust but
familiarity, insistent friendship.
Yes, Jesus speaks to Zacchaeus like an old
friend, forgotten maybe, but a friend who has
nonetheless remained faithful, and who enters
with the gentle force of affection into the life
and into the home of his re-discovered friend:
“Make haste and come down; for I must stay at
your house today” (Lk 19:5).
6. Luke's account is remarkable for the tone of
the language: everything is so personal, so
tactful, so affectionate! Not only is the text
filled with humanity; it suggests insistence, an
urgency to which Jesus gives voice as the one
offering the definitive revelation of God's
mercy. He says: “I must stay at your house”, or
to translate even more literally: “I need to
stay at your house” (Lk 19:5). Following the
mysterious road map which the Father has laid
out for him, Jesus runs into Zacchaeus along the
way. He pauses near him as if the meeting had
been planned from the beginning. Despite all the
murmuring of human malice, the home of this
sinner is about to become a place of revelation,
the scene of a miracle of mercy. True, this will
not happen if Zacchaeus does not free his heart
from the ligatures of egoism and from his unjust
and fraudulent ways. But mercy has already come
to him as a gratuitous and overflowing gift.
Mercy has preceded him!
This is what happens in every sacramental
encounter. We must not think that it is the
sinner, through his own independent journey of
conversion, who earns mercy. On the contrary, it
is mercy that impels him along the path of
conversion. Left to himself, man can do nothing
and he deserves nothing. Before being man's
journey to God, confession is God's arrival at a
person's home.
In confession, therefore, we can find ourselves
faced with all kinds of people. But of one thing
we must be convinced: anticipating our
invitation, and even before we speak the words
of the sacrament, the brothers and sisters who
seek our ministry have already been touched by a
mercy that works from within. Please God, we
shall know how to cooperate with the mercy that
welcomes and the love that saves. This we can do
by our words and our attitude as pastors who are
concerned for each individual, skilful in
sensing people's problems and in delicately
accompanying them on their journey, and knowing
how to help them to trust in God's goodness.
7. “I must stay at your house”. Let us try to
penetrate these words still more deeply. They
are a proclamation. Before indicating a choice
on the part of Christ, they proclaim the will of
the Father. Jesus appears as someone with a
precise mandate. There is a “law” which he too
must observe: the will of the Father which he
accomplishes with such love that it becomes his
“food” (cf. Jn 4:34). The words which Jesus
speaks to Zacchaeus are not just a means of
establishing a relationship but the declaration
of a plan drawn up by God.
The meeting unfolds against the background of
the Word of God, which is one with the Word and
the Face of Christ. It is here too that the
encounter which is at the heart of the
celebration of Penance must begin. How poor if
everything were reduced to the skills of human
communication! Awareness of the laws of human
communication can help and should not be
overlooked, but it is the Word of God which must
sustain everything. That is why the rite of the
sacrament provides for the proclamation of this
Word to the penitent.
This is a detail that should not be
underestimated, even if it is not always easy to
implement. Confessors very often find it hard to
communicate what the Word demands to those who
have only a superficial knowledge of it.
Obviously, the actual celebration of the
Sacrament is not the best time to make up for
the lack. This should be done with pastoral
insight during the time of preparation, by
offering basic pointers that allow penitents to
measure themselves against the truth of the
Gospel. In any event, the confessor should not
fail to use the sacramental encounter to lead
penitents to some grasp of the way in which God
is mercifully reaching down to them, stretching
out his hand, not to strike but to save.
Who can deny that the dominant culture of our
time creates very real difficulties in this
regard? Even mature Christians are often
hindered by it in their efforts to live by God's
commandments and follow the guidelines set out
on the basis of the commandments by the Church's
magisterium. This is the case with many issues
in the area of sexual and family morality,
bio-ethics and professional and social morality;
but it is also true of problems regarding
obligations in the area of religious practice
and participation in the life of the Church. For
this reason there is a need for a catechesis
which the confessor cannot offer at the moment
of celebrating the sacrament. It would be best
to make this catechesis part of a deeper
preparation for confession. With this in mind,
penitential celebrations with community
preparation and individual confession can be
very helpful.
To clarify all of this, the “biblical icon” of
Zacchaeus provides yet another important cue. In
the sacrament, the penitent first meets not “the
commandments of God” but, in Jesus, “the God of
the commandments”. To Zacchaeus, Jesus offers
himself: “I must stay at your house”. He himself
is the gift that awaits Zacchaeus, and he is
also “God's law” for Zacchaeus. When we see our
encounter with Jesus as a gift, even the most
demanding features of the law assume the
“lightness” of grace, in line with that
supernatural dynamic which prompted Saint Paul
to say: “If you are led by the Spirit, you are
not under the law” (Gal 5:18). Every celebration
of Penance should cause the soul of the penitent
to leap with the same joy that Christ's words
inspired in Zacchaeus, who “made haste and came
down and received him joyfully” (Lk 19:6).
8.The availability and superabundance of mercy
should not however obscure the fact that it is
only the premise of salvation, which reaches
fulfilment to the extent that it meets a
response in the human being. In fact, the
forgiveness granted in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation is not some external action, a
kind of legal “remission of the penalty”, but a
real encounter of the penitent with God, who
restores the bond of friendship shattered by
sin. The “truth” of this relationship requires
that we welcome God's merciful embrace,
overcoming all the resistance caused by sin.
This is what happens in the case of Zacchaeus.
Aware that he is now being treated as a “son”,
he begins to think and act like a son, and this
he shows in the way he rediscovers his brothers
and sisters. Beneath the loving gaze of Christ,
the heart of Zacchaeus warms to love of
neighbour. From a feeling of isolation, which
had led him to enrich himself without caring
about what others had to suffer, he moves to an
attitude of sharing. This is expressed in a
genuine “division” of his wealth: “half of my
goods to the poor”. The injustice done to others
by his fraudulent behaviour is atoned for by a
fourfold restitution: “If I have defrauded any
one of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Lk
19:8). And it is only at this point that the
love of God achieves its purpose, and salvation
is accomplished: “Today salvation has come to
this house” (Lk 19:9).
Dear Priests, this journey of salvation, so
clearly described in the story of Zacchaeus,
should guide us and help us accomplish with wise
pastoral balance our difficult work in the
ministry of the confessional. It is a ministry
always beset by two opposite extremes: severity
and laxity. The first fails to take account of
the early part of the story of Zacchaeus: mercy
comes first, encouraging conversion and valuing
even the slightest progress in love, because the
Father wants to do the impossible to save the
son who is lost: “The Son of Man came to seek
and save the lost” (Lk 19:10).
The other of the two extremes, laxity, fails to
take into account the fact that the fullness of
salvation, not just offered but also accepted,
the salvation which truly heals and restores,
involves a genuine conversion to the demands of
God's love. If Zacchaeus had welcomed the Lord
into his home without coming to an attitude of
openness to love and reparation for the harm
done, without a firm commitment to living a new
life, he would not have received in the depths
of his heart the forgiveness which the Lord had
offered him with such concern.
We must always be careful to maintain a proper
balance in order to avoid falling into one or
the other of these extremes. Severity crushes
people and drives them away. Laxity is
misleading and deceptive. The minister of
pardon, who exemplifies for penitents the face
of the Good Shepherd, must express in equal
measure the mercy already present and at work
and the pardon which brings healing and peace.
It is on the basis of these principles that the
priest is deputed, in dialogue with the
penitent, to discern whether he or she is ready
for sacramental absolution. Undoubtedly, the
delicacy of this meeting with souls, at such a
personal and sometimes difficult moment, demands
the utmost discretion. Unless it appears
otherwise, the priest must assume that, in
confessing his or her sins, the penitent is
genuinely sorry and is determined to make
amends. This can be more readily assumed if
there are suitable pastoral aids for sacramental
Reconciliation, including a time of preparation
for the sacrament, in order to help penitents
come to a more mature and satisfactory sense of
what it is that they are looking for. Clearly,
when there is no sorrow and amendment, the
confessor is obliged to tell the penitent that
he or she is not yet ready for absolution. If
absolution were given to those who actually say
that they have no intention of making amends,
the rite would become a mere fiction; indeed, it
would look almost like magic, capable perhaps of
creating the semblance of peace, but certainly
not that deep peace of conscience which God's
embrace guarantees.
9. In the light of what has been said, it is all
the more evident why the personal encounter
between confessor and penitent is the ordinary
form of sacramental Reconciliation, while the
practice of general absolution is only for
exceptional circumstances. It is well known that
the practice of the Church moved gradually to
the private celebration of penance, after
centuries in which public penance had been the
dominant form. Not only did this development not
change the substance of the sacrament – and how
could it be otherwise! – but it actually
expressed this substance more clearly and made
it more effective. This happened not without the
aid of the Holy Spirit, who here too fulfilled
the mission of leading the Church “into all
truth” (Jn 16:13).
The ordinary form of Reconciliation not only
expresses well the truth of divine mercy and the
forgiveness which springs from it, but also
sheds light on the truth of man in one of its
most fundamental aspects. Although human beings
live through a network of relationships and
communities, the uniqueness of each person can
never be lost in a shapeless mass. This explains
the deep echo in our souls when we hear
ourselves called by name. When we realize that
we are known and accepted as we are, with our
most individual traits, we feel truly alive.
Pastoral practice needs to take this into
greater account, in order to strike a wise
balance between gatherings which emphasize the
communion of the Church and other moments which
attend to the needs of the individual. People
ordinarily want to be recognized and looked
after, and it is precisely this nearness to them
that allows them to experience God's love more
strongly.
Seen in these terms, the Sacrament of
Reconciliation is one of the most effective
instruments of personal growth. Here the Good
Shepherd, through the presence and voice of the
priest, approaches each man and woman, entering
into a personal dialogue which involves
listening, counsel, comfort and forgiveness. The
love of God is such that it can focus upon each
individual without overlooking the rest. All who
receive sacramental absolution ought to be able
to feel the warmth of this personal attention.
They should experience the intensity of the
fatherly embrace offered to the prodigal son:
“His father ... embraced him and kissed him” (Lk
15:20). They should be able to hear that warm
and friendly voice that spoke to the tax
collector Zacchaeus, calling him by name to new
life (cf. Lk 19:5).
10. Accordingly, confessors too need to be
properly trained for the celebration of this
Sacrament. It must be celebrated in such a way
that even in its external form it has all the
liturgical dignity indicated in the norms laid
down in the Rite of Penance. This does not
exclude the possibility ofadaptations for
pastoral reasons, where the situation of the
penitent truly calls for them, in light of the
classical principle which holds that the suprema
lex of the Church is the salus animarum. Let us
make the wisdom of the Saints our guide. And let
us move with courage in proposing confession to
young people. We must be close to them, able to
be with them as friends and fathers, confidants
and confessors. They need to discover in us both
of these roles, both dimensions.
While we remain firmly anchored in the
discernment of the Church's magisterium, let us
also make every effort to keep our theological
training truly up-to-date, especially where
emerging ethical issues are concerned. It can
happen that in the face of complex contemporary
ethical problems the faithful leave the
confessional with somewhat confused ideas,
especially if they find that confessors are not
consistent in their judgments. The truth is that
those who fulfil this delicate ministry in the
name of God and of the Church have a specific
duty not to promote and, even more so not to
express in the confessional, personal opinions
that do not correspond to what the Church
teaches and professes. Likewise, a failure to
speak the truth because of a misconceived sense
of compassion should not be taken for love. We
do not have a right to minimize matters of our
own accord, even with the best of intentions.
Our task is to be God's witnesses, to be
spokesmen of a mercy that saves even when it
shows itself as judgment on man's sin. “Not
everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord', shall
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).
11. Dear Priests! Know that I am especially
close to you as you gather with your Bishops on
this Holy Thursday of the year 2002. We have all
experienced a new momentum in the Church at the
dawn of the new millennium, in the sense of
“starting afresh from Christ” (Novo Millennio
Ineunte, 29 ff.). We had all hoped that this
momentum might coincide with a new era of
brotherhood and peace for all humanity. Instead
we have seen more bloodshed. Once again we have
been witnesses of wars. We are distressed by the
tragedy of the divisions and hatreds which are
devastating relations between peoples.
At this time too, as priests we are personally
and profoundly afflicted by the sins of some of
our brothers who have betrayed the grace of
Ordination in succumbing even to the most
grievous forms of the mysterium iniquitatis at
work in the world. Grave scandal is caused, with
the result that a dark shadow of suspicion is
cast over all the other fine priests who perform
their ministry with honesty and integrity and
often with heroic self-sacrifice. As the Church
shows her concern for the victims and strives to
respond in truth and justice to each of these
painful situations, all of us – conscious of
human weakness, but trusting in the healing
power of divine grace – are called to embrace
the “mysterium Crucis” and to commit ourselves
more fully to the search for holiness. We must
beg God in his Providence to prompt a
whole-hearted reawakening of those ideals of
total self-giving to Christ which are the very
foundation of the priestly ministry.
It is precisely our faith in Christ which gives
us the strength to look trustingly to the
future. We know that the human heart has always
been attracted to evil, and that man will be
able to radiate peace and love to those around
him only if he meets Christ and allows himself
to be “overtaken” by him. As ministers of the
Eucharist and of sacramental Reconciliation, we
in particular have the task of communicating
hope, goodness and peace to the world.
My wish is that you will live this most holy day
in peace of heart, in profound communion among
yourselves, with your Bishop and your
communities, when we recall, with the
institution of the Eucharist, our own “birth” as
priests. With the words of Christ to the
Apostles in the Upper Room after the
Resurrection, and calling upon the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Regina Apostolorum and Regina Pacis,
I warmly embrace you all as brothers: Peace,
peace to each and every one of you. Happy
Easter!
From the Vatican, on 17 March, the Fifth
Sunday of Lent, in the year 2002, the twenty-
fourth of my Pontificate.
JOHN PAUL II
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