“The Works of the Heart” – The Third Corporal Work of Mercy

A brief meditation by Msgr. Paolo Giulietti, Archbishop of Lucca, on the third corporal work of mercy, to live it concretely in everyday life.

“The works of the heart” is a booklet written by Msgr. Paolo Giulietti on the occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy held in 2015, when he was still auxiliary bishop of Perugia and Città della Pieve.

Ten years have passed, but the reflections of the current Archbishop of Lucca regarding the works of mercy remain deeply relevant.

The intention is to reread these brief meditations on the fourteen works and update them in daily life: what spazio + spadoni calls the “ReEvolution of the works of mercy.”

Clothe the naked

The first act committed by the SS upon the arrival of deportees at the concentration camps was to strip them of all their belongings, including their clothes and hair: nudity, combined with cold and fear, was the eloquent sign of the loss of all human dignity and personal identity connected to the outside world.

Alongside the need for clothing, unfortunately still real in many situations, the demand for dignity takes many forms today: the degradation of the body for economic gain, in pornography, but also in advertising; unemployment, especially among young people; violations of privacy (suffered or induced) caused by a media system that leans toward voyeurism, encouraging it through social networks…

The person is violated in their intimacy, exposed to the world, and reduced to an object of curiosity.

The third Work can therefore be lived today primarily as a sign of respect for the human person and what is most important, starting with oneself: refusing to put feelings and bodies on public display, “rewarding” with one’s attention and purchases those who operate according to different values; and working to support the employment of new generations.

Image created digitally by spazio + spadoni

Source: Giulietti, P., Le opere del cuore