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.