By Sister Laetita Therese, O.C.D.
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”
(Luke: 6-36)
Jesus invites us all to a reach a very high bar. He asks to act as God acts. We are to be merciful as God is merciful. That is a very high bar to reach. How is God merciful? Luke tells us “He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” To more clearly understand, we can reflect upon the etymology of the word “mercy.”
Mercy comes from the Latin word “misericordiae,” meaning “misery” and “heart.” When God, whose very Being is love, encounters human misery, His Heart is moved for us. In fact, were it not for our sinful human condition, mercy would not exist. God would have no reason to be merciful.
Jesus directs His followers to imitate the Heart of God and to be merciful as well. This is possible because one who has truly encountered the mercy of God in the depths of their being, will, out of love and gratitude, desire to share this experience with others. They will want others to know the mercy they have received.
Jesus knows that even with the best intentions, sharing the mercy of God with others will not be possible without divine assistance. And so, through the sacramental life of the Church, He gives the gift of grace. With God’s divine life actively present in the soul, there can no longer be an excuse to not act as He does, for He is able to act in and through us. We can no longer withhold mercy from another.
Let us pray that as we continue our Lenten journey, we will more deeply experience the depths of God’s mercy toward us so that, with the help of His grace, we will be vessels of His mercy toward others.
Lord Jesus, as I experience the healing power of Your mercy, help me to learn each day to extend it to others.
