Sunday, June 29, 2014

Mercy above all

THIS should be very clear to all of us. We have to be
merciful ourselves, because God who is our Father is merciful. Christ
himself said it openly: “Be merciful as your Father is merciful.” (Lk
6,36)

            In the Holy Bible, numerous references to the mercy of God
are made. His mercy is forever, is eternal. He is rich in mercy. He is
slow to anger, quick to forgive. We have to forgive others not only
seven times, but seventy times seven. This obviously alludes to the
biblical passage that even a just man falls seven times in a day.

            When Christ was asked to teach his disciples how to pray,
he gave them the now-famous “Our Father” that includes, “Forgive us
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

            More importantly, he asked for forgiveness for those who
crucified him. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”
These are words that are meant not only for those who participated
directly in his crucifixion, but also for all of us.

            This desire and request of Christ, who is God himself, the
Son of God who became man, must also be the desire and the request of
his Father, since the Father and the Son are one, together with the
Holy Spirit. Of course, it must have been a desire and request fully
and happily granted by God.

            All these very reassuring truths should solidify our
belief that God is always merciful and that we too, since we are
children of God, image and likeness of his, should also be merciful.

            Whatever differences and conflicts we may have among
ourselves, whatever mistakes and failures we commit, we have to be
merciful in the end.

            Mercy should be above all other considerations. It
certainly goes beyond what our human justice can cover and resolve.
Thus, even as we try our best to resolve these differences and
conflicts through our legal and judicial system, and our other
informal ways of justice, we should be ready and quick to dispense
mercy to everyone.

            Let’s not get detained too long by the mistakes that we
all commit. Rather, assured of God’s mercy and liberally dispensing
mercy ourselves to one another, let’s look forward to what can be done
to help, to heal what is wounded, to restore what was destroyed, to
repair what was damaged, to improve what still needs to be improved.

            Christ was clear about how it is not in him to condemn
people. “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save.” (Lk
9,56) We should also have this attitude. And so, we need to expand our
mind and heart so as to be magnanimous always with those with whom we
have some problems.

            Very often, our pursuit for justice is marred by many
other not-so-welcome ulterior motives. Justice often becomes a
playground to play out our preferences, biases, whims, caprices. It
can also become an arena to fight out our vengeance, anger, hatred and
other forms of malice. It can deteriorate into mob rule.

            We have to be wary when we get too concerned about justice
without as much being concerned about mercy. We would be treading on
dangerous ground that way. Instead of attaining justice, we most
likely would be generating more injustice.

            In fact, we should be more concerned with mercy than with
justice, given the obvious limitations of our human justice. It’s not
that we should ignore justice altogether. We have need at least to air
out our differences and enter into some discussion. But everything has
to be marked by delicacy and refinement.

            To avoided like the plague is anything that can lead to
acrimony, bitter zeal, self-righteousness, bigotry, impatience, foul
language, rash judgment, etc. Even if in the eyes of the public we may
seem to have been defeated in a debate because we follow the
requirements of charity and mercy, we can be sure that deep in our
heart and before God, we are winners who do not consider the other
party as losers.

            In the first place, venting out our anger and falling into
hatred because of our very limited if not distorted sense of justice
harms us more than create any good in anybody. We would just be
polluting the air around.

            As the world in general becomes more complex, with more
issues coming in and possibilities of conflicts increasing, it would
be good if we truly value the importance of mercy and its crucial role
in our effort to live justice.


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