Today's readings: March 9, 2009
Reading One: Dn 9:4b-10 ;
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 79:8, 9, 11 and 13 ;
Gospel: Lk 6:36-38 ; go to this page (for all three sections listed above on one page) And here's an audio file; & reflections (video)
Today we reflect of the nature of mercy. Like many words, the definition has been altered from the original meaning. Today, when someone says have mercy on me, they are asking you to be lenient with me, or perhaps show me some pity. In fact the original meaning is much deeper, and comes from the Latin, miserere cors - which means a sorrowful heart. I think this is closer to the meaning of what Jesus is asking of us, when he says be merciful. Huh? A sorrowful heart? Yes, in the deeper sense of understanding mercy, you feel the other person's pain, and as such, share the sorrow of the heart, hence miserere cors, or a sorrowful heart makes sense. So much deeper than pity, this old school mercy is where you share the other's pain, and actually put yourself in the other person's shoes, and feel saddened as you really understand their pain. Before this can happen at a deeper level, one is required to let go of their opinion, which might be in a mode to judge or condemn anothers action.
I think the easiest way to explore this concept of mercy, and where it is most helpful as good medicine for the soul, is to look at broken love relationships. Whether a friendship, a broken love between two people, or a broken marriage - the concept is the same, the intensity is different of course, but broken love relationships can become very bitter without mercy. And the bitterness is like a cancer that can infect not only the two people who lost their love for each other, but in the case of broken marriages, it also can easily hurt the children too. And bitterness is such a terrible thing as it eats away at all the good things you once felt about each other but also, takes away from your relationship with God. We are all His children, and no parent likes it when two kids are not loving toward each other. It doesn't need to end this way. The remedy is mercy and forgetting the hurt or righteous indignation you feel, or most often, your opinion on matter, and really explore the other persons feelings, and better still how your actions might have contributed to the love relationship becoming damaged. It much easier to show mercy if you explore your own shortcomings, since it isn't all the other person's fault.
But there's no need to make this matter complex, it always comes down to a simple choice, that we all have the option to make. Do we choose to stay bitter or do we listen to Jesus, and show mercy and stop judging. Do we love our own opinion - or do we love each other?
