In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis challenges all of us, clerics and laity, to grow in apostolic holiness according to our state in life. We are all preachers and evangelizers in complementary ways, priests and people. The challenge is to leave negativity and discouragement at the feet of Jesus in our spiritual life, and keep plowing ahead toward growth in many different virtues. And it seems the Pope has given us a vision of spirituality that is not simply Thomistic, or even Ignatian, but both modern and traditional.
A section of his thought affects strongly those of us who have a mandate to preach homilies. One could argue that those pages are even more important than the norms of Humanae Vitae! While Pope Francis asks very much of bishops, priests and deacons, the telos is to emphasize the many positive doctrines taught by Jesus. He is telling us that any “thou shalt not” is not nearly as important as a “thou shall”. In this case, he emphasizes the importance of excellent homilies.
One outstanding feature among many others in Evangelium Gaudium is the notion of “tenderness”, a deep reality each and all can and should relate to — for as we know by now, morality includes the emotions. For example, let us take a look at the following three sections:
2. ….With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he [God] makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!
4. … This is the joy which we experience daily, amid the little things of life, as a response to the loving invitation of God our Father: “My child, treat yourself well, according to your means… Do not deprive yourself of the day’s enjoyment” (Sir 14:11, 14). What tender paternal love echoes in these words!
88. …The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness
You will notice in numbers 2 and 4, Pope Francis refers to the tenderness of God doing something with love and mercy toward us. Then in number 88, he sets out a profound challenge: that we become tender as well to others. This may be obvious to some, but not to all, especially those who tend to be harder on others. What does this mean?
Tenderness refers to a feeling of mercy, empathy, and gentleness, which warms one’s heart and often wins over people who at first do not wish to listen to us in any capacity. Tenderness is opposed to harshness, or a certain sternness, tending almost to being cruel. We can think of parents who constantly nag at each other — spouses demanding from each a perfection that the other cannot give. Or, we can think of parents who never praise their children, but for the most part criticize them, demand an excellence from them, which their children cannot achieve. As a result, the child or the spouse never feels good about him or herself. In other words, good morality has a great deal to do with good emotions, one of them being tenderness.
The Pope further pushes us beyond our comfort zone when he draws a concrete example. Simply knowing conceptually a truth and uttering it from a pulpit or a classroom is not enough to move others and often can even attenuate apostolic encounters both in the confessional or homiletic settings and in one’s household. If we truly believe that each human being has been created in the image and likeness of God, then all of us are equal at heart, even if we have differing skills and charisms, as well as differing wounds and imperfections:
270. Sometimes we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length. Yet Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others. He hopes that we will stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead enter into the reality of other people’s lives and know the power of tenderness. Whenever we do so, our lives become wonderfully complicated and we experience intensely what it is to be a people, to be part of a people.
Hence, Francis can truly push us in the following way by helping us appreciate this tenderness in God the Father:
279. …. Sometimes it seems that our work is fruitless, but mission is not like a business transaction or investment, or even a humanitarian activity. It is not a show where we count how many people come as a result of our publicity; it is something much deeper, which escapes all measurement. It may be that the Lord uses our sacrifices to shower blessings in another part of the world which we will never visit. The Holy Spirit works as he wills, when he wills and where he wills; we entrust ourselves without pretending to see striking results. We know only that our commitment is necessary. Let us learn to rest in the tenderness of the arms of the Father amid our creative and generous commitment. Let us keep marching forward; let us give him everything, allowing him to make our efforts bear fruit in his good time.
Finally, in calling us all to include tenderness as a virtue of apostolic outreach, he brings forth a Marian theme, reminding us of how she lived her life of merciful love:
288. There is a Marian “style” to the Church’s work of evangelization. Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. In her we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong who need not treat others poorly in order to feel important themselves. Contemplating Mary, we realize that she who praised God for “bringing down the mighty from their thrones” and “sending the rich away empty” (Lk 1:52-53) is also the one who brings a homely warmth to our pursuit of justice. She is also the one who carefully keeps “all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Mary is able to recognize the traces of God’s Spirit in events great and small. She constantly contemplates the mystery of God in our world, in human history and in our daily lives. She is the woman of prayer and work in Nazareth, and she is also Our Lady of Help, who sets out from her town “with haste” (Lk 1:39) to be of service to others. This interplay of justice and tenderness, of contemplation and concern for others, is what makes the ecclesial community look to Mary as a model of evangelization. We implore her maternal intercession that the Church may become a home for many peoples, a mother for all peoples, and that the way may be opened to the birth of a new world. It is the Risen Christ who tells us, with a power that fills us with confidence and unshakeable hope: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). With Mary we advance confidently towards the fulfilment of this promise….
It may well be that our prayer life suffers from dryness and distraction sometimes because we have lacked the tenderness necessary to approach the marginalized, the wounded, and the sinners in our midst. Perhaps this is an aspect most of us neglect to ask ourselves when we examine our conscience.
Father Basil Cole, O.P. is currently a Professor of Moral and Spiritual Theology, Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. Father is also author of Music and Morals, The Hidden Enemies of the Priesthood and coauthor of Christian Totality; Theology of Consecrated Life. A native San Franciscan, Father has been a prior in the Western province of the Dominicans, a parish missionary and retreat master, and invited professor of moral and spiritual theology at the Angelicum in Rome.
