Consolation for Exiles Pope Francis' Wednesday Catechesis, March 16, 2016

By: Jennifer E. Miller, S.T.D., Professor of Moral Theology

NDS Blog Feature

This is a continuing feature on the NDS Blog. Dr. Jennifer E. Miller translates and offers commentary on the Pope’s General Audience every Wednesday.

This catechesis continues the catecheses on the Jubilee Year of Mercy which began on December 8, 2015. These catecheses are intended to help the faithful in living and witnessing well to the mercy of our Lord during this Extraordinary Jubilee.

Dr. Miller’s comments can be found in the blue boxes as you read her translation.

10.  Mercy and Consolation

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.

In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, chapters 30 and 31 are called the “Book of Consolation”, because in them the mercy of God is presented with all of its capacity to comfort and to open the heart of the afflicted to hope. Today we also want to listen to this message of consolation.

Jeremiah addresses himself to the Israelites who have been deported to a foreign land, and he predicts the return to their homeland. This return is a sign of the infinite love of God the Father who does not abandon his children, but takes care of them and saves them. The exile was a devastating experience for Israel. Their faith had wavered, because in a foreign land, without their temple, without their cult, after having seen their country destroyed, it was difficult to continue to believe in the goodness of the Lord. I think of nearby Albania and how after much persecution and destruction, it succeeded in raising itself in dignity and in faith. Thus did the Israelites suffer in the exile.

In his 2013 Angelus on the Feast of the Holy Family, Pope Francis noted how Jesus and his family were also immigrants and refugees (cf. Mt 2:13-15; 19-23): “Jesus wanted to belong to a family who experienced these hardships, so that no one would feel excluded from the loving closeness of God. The flight into Egypt caused by Herod’s threat shows us that God is present where man is in danger, where man is suffering, where he is fleeing, where he experiences rejection and abandonment; but God is also present where man dreams, where he hopes to return in freedom to his homeland and plans and chooses life for his family and dignity for himself and his loved ones.”

The prophet Jeremiah gives us a first response. The exiled people could return to see their land and to experience the mercy of the Lord. It is a great announcement of consolation: God is not absent even today in these dramatic situations, God is near, and he performs great works of salvation for those who trust in Him. One must not surrender to desperation, but contain to be sure that good conquers evil and that the Lord will dry every tear and he will liberate us from every fear. Therefore Jeremiah lends his voice to the words of God for his people:

“I have loved you with an eternal love,

so I continue to be faithful to you.

I will build you again and you will remain built,

virgin Israel.

Again you will take up your tambourines

and you shall go forth dancing among people in celebration” (31:3-4).

As a sign of God’s love, the Church declares that “Any person in danger who appears at a frontier has a right to protection…Protection is not a simple concession made to the refugee: he is not an object of assistance, but rather a subject of rights and duties…Likewise, since the family is the fundamental unit of every society, the reunification of refugee families must be promoted.” Refugees: A Challenge to Solidarity, 10, 11, 12.

The consoling dream of the return to their homeland continues in the words of the prophet, who, addressing himself to those who will return to Jerusalem, says:

“Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,

they shall come streaming to the Lord’s blessings:

The grain, the wine, and the oil,

flocks of sheep and cattle;

They themselves shall be like watered gardens,

never again neglected” (31:12).

In joy and in gratitude, the exiles will return to Zion, ascending on the holy mountain towards the house of God, and thus they can again raise hymns and prayers to the Lord who has liberated them. This return to Jerusalem and to its blessings is described with a verb that literally means “to flow, to pour”. The people is seen, in a paradoxical movement, like an overflowing river that flows towards the high ground of Zion, climbing once more towards the peak of the mountain. An audacious image to say how great the mercy of the Lord is!

The land, which the people had been forced to abandon, had become the prey of enemies and desolated. Now, instead, it is given life once more and flourishes once more. And the exiled people themselves will be like an irrigated garden, like a fertile land. Israel, brought back again to her homeland by her Lord, is witness to the victory of life over death and blessing over curse.

It is thus that the people is fortified and consoled by God. This word is important: consoled! Those who have returned to their homeland receive life from a source that gratuitously irrigates them.

At this point, the prophet announces the fullness of joy, and continues to speak in the name of God, proclaiming:

“I will turn their mourning into joy,

I will console them, and I will make them happy, without afflictions” (31:13).

The psalm tells us that when they return to their homeland their mouths will be filled with smiles; it is a joy so great! It is the gift that the Lord wants to give also to each one of us, with his forgiveness that converts and reconciles.

The prophet Jeremiah has given us this announcement, presenting the return of the people exiled as a great symbol of the consolation given to the heart of he who converts. The Lord Jesus, for his part, brought to fulfillment this message of the prophet. The true and radical return from exile and comforting light after the darkness of the crisis of faith is realized at Easter, in the full and definitive experience of the love of God, merciful love that gives joy, peace, and eternal life.

IN DEPTH: The Church, examining society in the light of the Gospel and its mission in Christ, declares that “The international community as a whole has the moral obligation to intervene on behalf of those groups whose very survival is threatened or whose basic human rights are seriously violated. As members of an international community, States cannot remain indifferent…A particular category of war victim is formed by refugees, forced by combat to flee the places where they habitually live and to seek refuge in foreign countries. The Church is close to them not only with her pastoral presence and material support, but also with her commitment to defend their human dignity”. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 506, 505.

About the Author: Jennifer E. Miller, S.T.D., Professor of Moral Theology

Cajun by birth, Dr. Jennifer E. Miller comes from the Lafayette area. She earned her BA in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2002, after which she worked for two years in youth ministry in the Ville Platte area of southern Louisiana.

Travelling to Rome to complete her studies, she earned an STB at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in 2007 and an STL in moral theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2009. After a year of postgraduate studies at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Dr. Miller began work on a doctorate in Catholic Social Doctrine at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. During this time, she also worked as assistant to Msgr. Martin Schlag, consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and as the Directress of Studies at the Markets, Culture and Ethics Research Centre, an interdisciplinary research center between philosophy, theology, and economics that seeks to encourage and promote the virtuous culture necessary for an ethical economic system. Her STD was completed in 2013, with a thesis critiquing and reformulating Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach in light of the principle of subsidiarity and the family.

Dr. Miller has previously taught moral theology at the Aquinas Institute in Lafayette, Louisiana and was involved in teaching at Christendom College’s Rome Campus and at the Institute of Higher Religious Studies at the Apollinare (ISSRA), located at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. She has taught and published both in English and in Italian. Dr. Miller believes that the moral life is best lived when it is understood as the call to holiness, to the beauty of the virtuous life in Christ directed towards beatitude, rather than as a system of exterior rules and obligations; she seeks to impart this understanding and this way of living the moral life to her students.

Jennifer E. Miller, S.T.D.
Office Location
St. Joseph Hall – Room 109

Contact
Email: jmiller@nds.edu