Tag Archives: mercy

Mercy

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Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. ‘Mercy’ is a beautiful word: more beautiful still is mercy itself. All wish to receive it, yet not all behave in a way that deserves it…You must show mercy in this world if you want to receive mercy in heaven.. What is human mercy? Exactly this: to have care for the sufferings of the poor. What is divine mercy? Without doubt, to grant forgiveness of sins. Whatever human mercy gives away on the journey, divine mercy pays back when we arrive at last in our native land. For it is God who feels cold and hunger, in the person of the poor. As he himself has said: As much as you have done for the least of these, you have done it for me. What God deigns to give in heaven, he yearns to receive on earth.

St. Peter Chrysologus

Praying Like The Tax Collector

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Lk 18:9-14

Jesus addressed this parable

to those who were convinced of their own righteousness

and despised everyone else.

“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;

one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.

The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,

‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity

greedy, dishonest, adulterous  or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week,

and I pay tithes on my whole income.’

But the tax collector stood off at a distance

and would not even raise his eyes to heaven

but beat his breast and prayed,

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;

for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,

and the one who humbles himself shall be exalted.

Saturday, 3rd week of lent

In Luke’s gospel Jesus often takes the side of tax collectors, widows, and sinners like the prodigal son who are so beaten down by their own situation that they can hardly dream of anything better. He is criticized frequently for associating with people like that, so he must have done it often enough.

In the parable, the tax collector who goes into the temple area to pray is one of them. Early in his gospel, Luke recalls that Jesus sat down at table with a number of tax collectors who were Matthew’s friends. Is he typical of them?

Staying at a distance, eyes down, the tax collector only utters a couple of words:

“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

The Pharisee’s prayer is so different, so full of himself; he seems to ask for applause. The tax collector asks only for mercy.

His prayer was heard, Jesus says, so should we not make it our own? Tax-collectors,  widows and sinners are heard because their situation is closest to where all humanity stands. God hears their prayers and calls them into his Kingdom. We all stand in need of God’s mercy.

“O God come to my assistance. O Lord make haste to help me.”

Mercy Unmeasured

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Mt 18:21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had him put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”

Peter’s question about forgiveness ( “How many times must I forgive my brother?”) isn’t a question he poses from personal curiosity. In this section of Matthew’s gospel Peter speaks for all believers and asks questions in their name.

So, as disciples, we ask too, “How many times must I forgive others?”  Our forgiveness must be measured by God’s forgiveness, Jesus says, which is beyond measure. The two servants in the parable he relates are both part of a money operation gone wrong, and nothing brings out the worst of people like money. There’s a big difference in the money owed, however. The first owes his master ten thousand talents, a huge sum; yet his master, in a totally unexpected display of mercy, forgives his entire debt.

After being forgiven so much, that servant sends off to debtors prison another servant who owes him a few denarii. Ten thousand talents would be worth about 10 million denariii, scholars say. A big difference!

Jesus does not rest his teaching on a parable, however. The unmeasurable forgiveness of God finds its greatest expression in his passion and death. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” Jesus cries out from the cross. His plea is not for one, or a few, but for the whole world. He shows us an amazing grace.

The mercy of God, beyond measure, is revealed in him, and we look to him as we measure our forgiveness of others.

The Gift of Mercy

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Lk 6:36-38

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”

In Matthew’s gospel Jesus goes up a mountain to teach his disciples. In Luke’s gospel, read on the Monday of the 2nd week of lent, the mountain is the place where Jesus prays with them. Then he descends and teaches them at length about loving others, especially one’s enemies.

We can hear his words as an extension of the beatitude “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”

Notice what mercy means. It means not judging, not condemning, being forgiving. However, mercy does not stop there, it goes on to give gifts to the other. That’s the way God shows mercy. Like the father of the prodigal son, whom Luke describes later on in his gospel, God not only forgives but offers sinners a feast of unearned graces– “bring a robe–the best one–and put it on him, put a ring on his finger and scandals on his feet.”

God doesn’t ration mercy or hedge it around with caution. He doesn’t keep remembering anyone’s wrong.

St Bernard says that the merciful “are those who see the truth in their neighbor and reach out in compassion and identify in love with them, responding to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were their own.” Seeing the truth in our neighbor means, of course, seeing  human frailty, misguided dreams, selfishness and sinfulness in others and recognizing that truth in  ourselves. Mercy begins by knowing yourself.

Mercy, divine and human

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St. Caesarius of Arles has some thoughts on mercy in today’s readings:

There is earthly and heavenly mercy: that is, human and divine. What is human mercy? Exactly this: to have care for the sufferings of the poor. What is divine mercy? Without doubt, to grant forgiveness of sins.

Whatever human mercy gives away on the journey, divine mercy pays back when we arrive at last in our native land. For it is God who feels cold and hunger, in the person of the poor. As he himself has said: As much as you have done for the least of these, you have done it for me.

What God deigns to give on heaven, he yearns to receive on earth.

Prayer, Fasting and Mercy

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The sermon on prayer, fasting and mercy in today’s reading by St. Peter Chrysologus, the 5th century bishop of Ravenna, is a reminder not to forget what this season is about.

Prayer, fasting and mercy are joined together; they are one, the saint says. “They give life to each other…Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives…Don’t separate them; they can’t be separated. If you have only one and not all of them together you have nothing.”

Prayer knocks at the door of an ever-present God, whom we so easily forget. We must keep the God who made us and saves us before our eyes and let God inform how we live and act.

Fasting reminds us our common human condition. We are all poor.  Fasting is an effort we make to experience the human condition, especially as it’s reflected in the poor of this world. It counters our tendency to independence and isolation.

Too often today, I feel, fasting becomes a self-help project.  Maybe we can lose a few pounds and be a healthier person, and so in the end it all comes down to us.

That’s why mercy follows prayer and fasting.  It’s the gift of life and love that we give to others.
Without mercy–a better way to describe almsgiving, I think– prayer and fasting are ineffective.

“Give to the poor and you give to yourself. “

Gospel stories: Mirrors for seeing ourselves

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The gospel stories are like mirrors that help us see ourselves and what we should be, St. Asterius says in today’s readings. (Can’t find anything about him in my limited dictionaries of the saints). He’s reading the parable of the Good Shepherd, who leaves the sheep at pasture to search for the stray.

“He crosses many valleys and thickets, he climbs great and towering mountains, he spends much time and labor in wandering through solitary places until at last he finds his sheep.

And when he finds it, he does not chastise it; he does not use rough blows to drive it back, but gently places it on his own shoulders and carries it back to the flock. He takes greater joy in this one sheep, lost and found, than in all the others.”

The hidden meaning of the parable? “It teaches us that we should not look on people as lost or beyond hope; we should not abandon them when they are in danger or be slow to come to their help.”
God does not look on people as lost or hopeless. Neither should we.

God’s Greatest Gift

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God’s gifts cannot be numbered, St. Basil says in the reading for today. The blessings God gives us cannot be named or understood. They are more numerous than everything  in this world of ours.

Yet, one blessing stands out  to be kept in mind: God’s mercy.
Mercy is God’s surprising gift, a gift that lifts us up from failure. God never abandons us, even when we fail him and persist in our failure. His mercy is beyond our expectations.
The cross is a sign of God’s mercy, for it brings us to life. “Nor was God content  merely to summon us back from death to life;, he also bestows on us the dignity of his own divine nature and prepares for us a place of joy that surpasses all human imagination.”
Yet, the saint confesses, he easily forgets this unforgettable gift. He’s overcome by trivialities.
How can we prevent being overcome by trivialities?