CHRIST has told
us clearly: “Be merciful, just as your
Father is merciful.” (Lk 6,36) There are no ifs and buts
in these
words. In fact, Christ continued to say: “Do not judge,
and you will
not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be
condemned. Forgive,
and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to
you…For with
the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (37-38)
We need to etch
these words deeply in our mind and heart
and start to develop the relevant attitude, skills and
lifestyle. We
have to remember that if we truly have to be ‘another
Christ’ as we
ought to be, we have to know how to be merciful the way
Christ, the
fullness of God’s revelation to us, was and continues to
be merciful
to all of us.
And how was
Christ merciful to all of us? First of all,
being the son of God, he emptied himself to become man.
That way, he
already adapted himself to our wounded, sinful condition.
He
identified himself with us so that we would have a way to
identify
ourselves with him. He preached the truth about God and
about
ourselves.
He gave
preferential attention to the sick, that is, the
sinners. He was always ready to forgive, his mercy and
compassion
having no limits—“not only seven times, but seventy times
seven
times.” (Mt 18,22) He taught about loving the enemy and
lived it. He
did not mind all the insults and mockeries that were
poured on him
just to accomplish his mission of saving us.
And in the end,
he assumed all our sins without committing
sin by dying on the cross. In that way, he dealt death to
all our
sins, and with his resurrection he offered us a way for
our own
salvation and reconciliation with our Father God. He was
thoroughly
magnanimous.
This is the
ideal we should try our best, with God’s
grace, to aim at. This, of course, will be a lifelong,
let alone
overwhelming, effort and process. But it can be done. And
it would be
good if we can start it as soon as we can. God waits for
us to learn
this virtue. And to be sure, he provides us with all that
is needed in
this regard.
On our part, we
have to exert the effort to widen our
heart so as to resemble it with the merciful heart of
Christ.
Everyday, we have to practice to detach our heart from
the clutches of
our own likes and dislikes, the very
earth-and-flesh-bound condition
of our physical, emotional and intellectual dynamics, so
that it can
conform itself to the universal heart of Christ, full of
mercy and
compassion.
We should be
eager to forgive, facilitating things so that
mercy can be given. One concrete way of learning to be
merciful always
is to be understanding of everyone the way one is while
always
thinking of how everyone should be. In this, we need to
acquire the
mind and heart, the attitude and skills of a mediator
who, like
Christ, is the bridge between God and man.
Definitely, to
be merciful one needs to learn the art of
patience and suffering, which in their turn will require
a deep sense
of humility and simplicity. Without the latter virtues,
it would just
be impossible for us to be merciful and compassionate.
This means that
just like what St. Paul once said, we have
to learn to be “all things to all men.” (1 Cor 9,22)
Indeed, we simply
have to forget ourselves so that this ability to be
flexible and ready
to serve and help everyone as he is, can be developed.
We have to
learn to serve and help people who are either
simple or complicated, of the intellectual or the manual
or
blue-collar type, rich or poor, young or old, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment