When people invoke blessings, a comprehensive moral analysis should not be a prerequisite for their granting. They should not be required to possess any prior moral perfection. It is God who blesses. In the first pages of the Bible, the continuous repetition of blessings is evident. God blesses, but so do people, and it soon becomes clear that blessings possess a special power that accompanies throughout the lives of those who receive them and shapes the human heart to allow itself to be transformed by God. Therefore, we are more important to God than all the sins we may commit, because He is a father, He is a mother, He is pure love, He has blessed us forever. And He will never stop blessing us.
This attitude full of trust is encouraged by the liturgy of the Church itself, even amidst our sins, lack of merits, amidst weaknesses and confusions, as evidenced by the beautiful opening prayer taken from the Roman Missal: “Almighty God, our heavenly Father, you in your generosity give those who ask for more than they deserve and desire; have mercy on us, free us from everything that burdens our conscience, and grant us even what we do not dare to ask” (27th Sunday in Ordinary Time). Indeed, how often can people experience the Father's closeness through the simple blessing of a shepherd, which does not claim to punish or acknowledge anything in this gesture, “more than they deserve and desire.”
This is the root of Christian mildness, the ability to feel blessed and the ability to bless. This world needs blessings, and we can give blessings and receive blessings. The Father loves us, and all that remains for us is the joy of blessing Him, the joy of thanking Him, and learning from Him how to bless.
(Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith,
declaration Fiducia supplicans on the Pastoral Significance of Blessings, paragraphs 25.27.34.45; 2023)
