For the Catholic Church, a holy year remains a time of great spiritual significance, and emphasis is placed on the examination of conscience and conversion, the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, concrete acts of solidarity and initiatives to restore justice.
To feed the hungry is the first corporal work of mercy. It was given by Jesus when he spoke to his disciples about the Judgment of the Nations (Mt 25:31-46), and it stands at the top of his list.
Works of mercy
Jesus placed an extraordinarily high value on mercy, so great, in fact, that it is the Fifth Beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Mt 5:7).
The “church lady” came after all.
Beatrice, who suffers from memory loss, was living in a nursing home in West St. Paul when her family decided recently to move her to a new facility nearly 15 miles away.
“I have a brother who’s been homeless for some time,” said Farrell, 68. “When [wife] Mary and I moved back here to the Twin Cities [in 1992] — we were on the West Coast for 17 years — we found my brother and got him some housing.”
