For forty years, the people of Israel, wrested from Pharaoh's slavery, made their way towards the land promised by God. In the midst of their lights and shadows, their sins and heroic deeds, the Israelites felt as no other people ever did. "the tender mercy of our God." (Lk 1:78). From the beginning, Christians were aware of being the new people announced by the prophets. Thus, what was said of Israel in the past is now said of the Church: People of God (Tt 2:14; cf. Dt 7:6), chosen breed, holy nation, acquired people (1 Pet 2:9; cf. Ex 19:5; Is 43:20-21), wife of the Lord (Eph 5:25; Rev 19:7; 21:2).
A new people who experience, now forever by virtue of the Blood of the Lamb shed on the Cross, that Jesus Christ, "having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." (Jn 13:1). "God's love became visible and tangible in the life of Jesus Christ. His Person is nothing other than love. A love that is freely given. In Him everything speaks of mercy. Nothing in Him is lacking in compassion."the Pope has written in his message for the Holy Year of Mercy (Misericordiae Vultus 8).
This is the background of the beautiful initiative that our diocese of Osma-Soria has launched for this Holy Year of Mercy. Our Bishop, Mons. Gerardo Melgar Viciosa, has asked us to go "to meet every person, bringing the goodness and tenderness of God". for "to all, believers and those far away, must come the balm of mercy as a sign of the Kingdom of God that is already present in our midst". (MV 5). Thus was born the diocesan pilgrimage of the banner of mercy which, throughout the Jubilee, will travel through the lands of Soria carrying the message of this particular Church which, in the course of the Jubilee, will be the first of its kind in the world. "she wants to show herself to be a kind mother to all, benign, patient, full of mercy and kindness to the children separated from her." (MV 3).
600 kilometers in 45 stages
It is a processional shawl with the image of the Divine Mercy and the phrase "Jesus, in You I trust." which will travel on foot throughout the entire diocese of Oxomense-Soriana until November 2016. In total there will be more than 600 kilometers of travel in 45 stages, through which the Church on pilgrimage in these Castilian lands wants to remind everyone "the infinite mercy of God who never tires of forgiving."as stated by Ángel Hernández Ayllón, Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Ministry, who is coordinating this initiative. During these months, in the localities where it is possible, young people in particular are being invited to go on pilgrimage with the banner. Thus, fifty parishes and some diocesan shrines will receive the pilgrims who will culminate their pilgrimage in the Episcopal Villa of El Burgo de Osma after having traveled through all the archpriestships of the diocese.
Throughout the Year, like the pilgrimage of the people of Israel through the desert, guided by the pillar of cloud and fire (cf. Ex 13:21), we want to offer the whole diocese the extraordinary guidance of divine mercy that allows us to enter the new Red Sea, the ocean of mercy that springs from the Heart of Christ, where we are reborn every day.
Remembering that God showers mercy
The parish of Ágreda, on the eve of the inauguration of the Holy Year, received in the Conceptionist Mothers' Monastery the mercy banner that remained in the town until December 12. On that day, the first day of the pilgrimage, it was taken to the neighboring town of Ólvega. The group departed from the parish church after 10 a.m., after a prayer of blessing and sending forth. Fifty children, teenagers and adults, with one of the parish priests of Ágreda at the head, the young priest Pedro L. Andaluz Andrés, walked praying the Holy Rosary the almost 11 kilometers that separate Ágreda from Ólvega; "It was moving to offer each mystery, to unravel the Hail Marys and litanies to Our Lady thanking God for His merciful love.". At the door of the Olvegueña parish they were welcomed by the parish priest, Jesús F. Hernández Peña, and many of the faithful. In the words of those present, the experience was "precious, very moving, and it prepared our hearts to welcome God's love." the approaching Christmas holidays.
The outline of each stage of the pilgrimage is similar: prayer to prepare the hearts, marking the direction of the stage before starting to walk; a stop halfway to rest, share impressions and have a simple snack; followed by the prayer of the Holy Rosary that prepares the arrival at the destination where, always with the respective priests at the head, the faithful of the parish welcome the pilgrims and unite in prayer of thanksgiving to God. "for his mercy endures forever." (Ps 136).
In our diocese we have felt in the depths of our hearts the words of Pope Francis who reminds us how "mercy is the main beam that supports the life of the Church." and urges us to "Everything in her pastoral action must be clothed with the tenderness with which she addresses believers; nothing in her proclamation and witness to the world can be devoid of mercy. The credibility of the Church passes through the path of merciful and compassionate love. The Church lives an inexhaustible desire to offer mercy". (MV 10).
This pilgrimage was born out of this desire to remind our people of the real presence of God in our midst, of that God who looks at everyone with love (cf. MV 8) and who is always ready to show his mercy.
In this Holy Year we are invited to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Doors open in the Cathedral of El Burgo de Osma and in the Co-cathedral of St. Peter. But the Holy Door par excellence, that of the Heart of Christ open to all, which many do not know and have never crossed, never closes. Not even when this time of grace and blessing that God has given to his Church comes to an end. Many have never even heard of it. Many have never received the wonderful and marvelous news, the heart of the Gospel, that God goes out to seek everyone without excluding anyone.
Therefore, we want everyone, even the most distant, the most sinful, through this simple gesture of the pilgrimage of the banner to be able to hear that "This is the right time to change your life! This is the time to let your heart be touched". (MV 19). Just as the Israelites, threatened with death by the bite of serpents, were healed by looking at the banner made by Moses (cf. Num 21:4-9), so we want all our land of Soria, so often ravaged by the saltpeter of sin, to be healed by contemplating divine mercy.
"The pilgrimage is a special sign in the Holy Year because it is an image of the journey that each person makes in his or her life. Life is a pilgrimage and the human being is a 'viator', a pilgrim who travels his path until he reaches the desired goal. [...]; each one should make, according to his own strength, a pilgrimage. This will be a sign of the fact that mercy is also a goal to be achieved and that it requires commitment and sacrifice."wrote the Pope (MV 14).
The pilgrimage of the banner is meant to be a stimulus for conversion; in this way we want many to allow themselves to be embraced by the mercy of God and to commit themselves to be merciful to others as the Father is to each one of us.
Episcopal Delegate for Social Communications Media (Diocese of Osma-Burgos).
