Mercy: A Continuous Offering Of Sacrificial Love
"Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36).
This command of Jesus doesn't sound difficult – until we truly consider how deep and limitless is our Father's mercy. To be merciful as our Father is merciful is to live mercy in a continuous offering of sacrificial love. Our Heavenly Father, out of mercy for His sinful children, demonstrated the greatest act of mercy in offering His Beloved Son Jesus to expiate for our sins; and Jesus, in humble obedience and purest love for His Father, revealed for us the human capacity to love. Our Lord Jesus' words to Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska exemplify the depth of His mercy: "My love and mercy knows no bounds" (Diary #718).
"For it is mercy that I desire, and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6). To be merciful comes from our hearts out of love. It "is written on our hearts," this law of love and mercy and obedience to God's commandments; "We have only to carry it out" (Deut 30:14). God our Creator has woven into our hearts the ability and deep desire to know and to live this perfect mercy. We have only to find it, and the key is in Him.
Do we see signs of mercy in the mysteries of nature, in those fellow creatures among us? I have heard stories of the cow birds, which selfishly remove eggs from nests of other bird species and lay their own eggs there. The "surrogate" mother bird then cares for these eggs – no longer her own – and nurtures them once they hatch. The humble dove often appears to take the "last place," feeding around the perimeter and timid to other birds at the feeder.
St. Francis of Assisi, at the beginning of his conversion, saw Christ hidden in the leper to whom he ran and embraced. As his conversion progressed, he began to see himself not as looking down from above at the world's creatures, but as a part of all creation. He identified all creatures as "brother" or "sister," seeing in them the same goodness as himself, originating from the same source of creation which is God's love. St. Francis showed mercy to all creatures out of reverence and awe for the image of God he saw in them. He used human attributes in describing them, referring to "sister water" as "humble and chaste," and "brother fire" as "playful, robust, and strong" (Canticle of Brother Sun). God in His perfect wisdom has made each creature individual and unique; all things are His marvelous creations.
When God sends us opportunities to be merciful as He is merciful, we must take them. Though we may not see the good that will come from our being receptive at that moment to God's inspiration to love, God does see and knows how just one small act of mercy may branch out and affect – and infect – others; a chain reaction of mercy, from one small moment of grace. To love God and neighbor, our hearts must be open, watchful, and ready to freely give. To love our neighbors is to be images of Christ to them in this world, and ultimately to desire the highest good for them – Heaven.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta saw Jesus in each and every poor leper and dying child she met. She saw Jesus. We are given this same opportunity each day if we open our eyes to see Jesus in others. Or, we can opt to keep our eyes on ourselves, turned away from Jesus, and continue to hold in our own hands the scourge of self-love and/or indifference. Every opportunity put before us is an opportunity to choose love. That is the only way we help Jesus to carry His Cross. As St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, all things, no matter how great, are nothing without love.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Mt 5:7). As God looks upon us through the eyes of His great mercy, may we see others and all of creation through His eyes, and permit Him to continue performing His acts of mercy through us.
Payne is a postulant with the Poor Clare Sisters.
