{"id":16985,"date":"2014-11-01T03:49:40","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T09:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=16985"},"modified":"2017-04-17T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T02:00:00","slug":"the-thin-line-between-mercy-heresy-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-thin-line-between-mercy-heresy-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thin Line Between Mercy & Heresy – Part II","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

PART II \u2014 Reaching the Wounded<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

WE<\/strong> have watched a rapid cultural and sexual revolution that in five short decades has decimated the family as divorce, abortion, redefinition of marriage, euthanasia, pornography, adultery, and many other ills have become not only acceptable, but deemed a social “good” or “right.” However, an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, drug use, alcohol abuse, suicide, and ever multiplying psychoses tell a different story: we are a generation that is bleeding profusely from the effects of sin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That is the present day context into which Pope Francis was elected. Standing on the balcony of St. Peter’s that day, he did not see a \"\"pasture before him, but a battlefield.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

I see clearly that the thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds\u2026. And you have to start from the ground up<\/strong>. \u2014POPE FRANCIS, interview with AmericaMagazine.com, September 30th, 2013<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

NEEDS OF THE WHOLE PERSON<\/p>\n

This is often how Jesus approached His earthly ministry: administering to the immediate wounds and needs of the people, which in turn, prepared the soil for the Gospel:<\/p>\n

\n

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed… <\/span>(Mark 6:56)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jesus also made it clear to His disciples that He was not a mere miracle worker\u2014a divine social worker. His mission had a deeper more existential aim: the healing of the soul. <\/em><\/p>\n

\n

I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent. (Luke 4:43)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That is, the message is essential. Doctrine is important. But in the context of love.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Deeds without knowledge are blind, and knowledge without love is sterile. <\/strong>\u2014POPE BENEDICT XVI, Caritas in Veritate, <\/em>n. 30<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

THE FIRST THING FIRST<\/p>\n

Pope Francis has never said or even implied that doctrine is unimportant as some think. He echoed Paul VI saying that the Church exists in order to evangelize. [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. POPE PAUL VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 24<\/span><\/span>