Merciful Like the Father—the Vision of Pastoral Care in the Parish

Sacred Scripture provides indications of how to channel pastoral care in the parish so that pastors and lay evangelizers will be merciful like the Father. The Merciful God is presented in the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Lost Drachma and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Pope Francis in Misericordiae Vultus observes that in these parables we discover “the core of the Gospel and of our faith, because mercy is presented as a force that overcomes everything, filling the heart with love and bringing consolation through pardon” (MV, 9). God is portrayed as the Merciful Father searching for those who have left the community of the faithful or got lost in the Church. This image is a foundation for creating a pastoral vision for the parish. From this perspective mercy does not apply only to the charity practices but becomes evangelisation which opens for a personal meeting with Jesus Christ in the Gospel, liturgy, sacraments and the community. From these parables the “imagination of mercy” is born, the imagination which should permeate the parish and indicate the style of pastoral care. The realisation of mercy consists in going to the peripheries of the parish in order to search for those who have left or got lost (cf. NMI, 50). The new “imagination of mercy” encourages us to use the law of gradualness in pastoral care (cf. EG, 34-39; AL, 293-295) and the strategy of facilitation (cf. EG, 44).