“How many times do we feel spiritually marginalised for our sins!” and “the Lord tells us: ‘Courage, come here! For me you are not an excluded person. Courage, son! Courage, daughter! You are my son, my daughter’. This is the time for grace, for forgiveness, for inclusion into the life of Jesus, into the life of the Church, this is the time for mercy”. Pope Francis said this during today’s general audience in St Peter’s Square, reflecting on “God’s mercy” starting from the Gospel account of the healing of the woman suffering from haemorrhages. “We should have the courage to go to Him – he added –, ask for the forgiveness of our sins, and move forward, with courage, as this woman did”. In this Gospel reading, “salvation takes on many forms. First of all, it restores the woman to her health, and frees her from social and religious discrimination. Then it fulfils the hope that she carries in her heart, annihilating her fears and frustrations. Finally, it returns her to her community, freeing her from the need to act in secret”. “Jesus frees us and makes us stand”, the Pontiff pointed out. “God created us ‘standing’, not humiliated”. “Jesus – he explained – gives a complete salvation, one that brings the woman’s life back into the sphere of God’s love, while at the same time restoring her to her full dignity. In other words, it is not the cloak touched by the woman that saves her, but the word of Jesus welcomed in the faith, which can comfort her, heal her, and restore her to her relationship with God and with his people. Jesus is the only source of blessing from which the salvation of all men flows. And faith is the fundamental disposition to receive it”.