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Article_Our language is love; its grammar is mercy

Columns | Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Our language is love; its grammar is mercy

Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro, president of the Colombian Bishops Conference who has been involved for many years in trying to build peace in Colombia, talks about mercy on the last day of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent.

Photographer: COURTESY | Archbishop Wenski

Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro, president of the Colombian Bishops Conference who has been involved for many years in trying to build peace in Colombia, talks about mercy on the last day of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski takes a selfie with Archbishop Max Mezidor of Cap Haitien on the last day of the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent.

Photographer: COURTESY | Archbishop Wenski

Archbishop Thomas Wenski takes a selfie with Archbishop Max Mezidor of Cap Haitien on the last day of the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski takes a selfie with Cardinal Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes, Haiti, on the last day of the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent.

Photographer: COURTESY | Archbishop Wenski

Archbishop Thomas Wenski takes a selfie with Cardinal Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes, Haiti, on the last day of the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski processes into Bogota's Porciuncula for the concluding Mass of the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent.

Photographer: COURTESY | Ricardo Grzona

Archbishop Thomas Wenski processes into Bogota's Porciuncula for the concluding Mass of the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent.

From Aug. 27-30, Archbishop Thomas Wenski was among 15 cardinals, 120 bishops and 400 priests, religious and lay people participating in the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent, a conference taking place in Bogota, Colombia. Archbishop Wenski shared his experience with Catholics in South Florida via this blog.

Tuesday | Our "celebration" of the Jubilee Year of Mercy in the Americas concluded today. The morning was taken up with two presentations on mercy: one by Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro, president of the Colombian Bishops Conference; the other by Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles.

Archbishop Castro has long been engaged in the struggle to bring peace to Colombia. He has represented the Church at various times in the negotiations between the Colombian government and the rebel insurgency, FARC. In fact, I first met Archbishop Castro when I was still a bishop in Orlando. He had traveled there to meet with the families of two Americans who at that time were being held hostage by the FARC. Since the U.S. government, as policy, would not speak to FARC (to do so would seem like negotiating with terrorists), the families of these American hostages were well appreciative of his efforts to secure their release.

Mercy, he said, was essential to bringing about lasting peace in his country. The peace process can be seen in two phases: "making peace" and "building peace." To make peace brings about a cessation of hostilities but it is insufficient. One must also build peace — and building peace means the healing of memories, reconciliation, recovery of human dignity; and it also requires truth-telling and not whitewashing war crimes whose perpetrators cannot enjoy impunity.

He spoke about the "grammar of mercy" — indeed, through the Holy Spirit Babel was conquered by Pentecost, the confusion of tongues by a new language, the language of love. But if love is the language of the Christian, mercy is its grammar.  Using correct grammar facilities communication in any language, and the grammar of mercy will help us communicate in the language of love.

Archbishop Gomez in his talk reminded us that "mercy" is not something new in the Church — it is the heart of the gospel. And while Pope Francis has underscored is importance for this moment in our world's history, what he says is in continuity with his predecessors and the tradition of the Church.

Our celebration concluded with two events at a local Franciscan church known in Bogota as the Porciuncula. Again participants will walk to the church where we will recite a "Rosario Continental por la Paz" — a rosary for peace with representation of the entire American continent. Following the rosary will be our final Eucharistic Liturgy.

Four very intense days, but days lived in a tremendous spirit of communion, will conclude with a dinner with the usual — but, I hope, short — celebratory speeches.  Homeward bound tomorrow, Deo gratias!

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