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Mercy is an Obligation,
February 23, 2025
I think too often we think of “mercy” as a thing we can dole out on a whim, bestowing it freely on people who have pleased us and withholding it from those we find unworthy. It seems like “mercy” is something granted to those who do not deserve it at all, but the one giving it, regal and magnanimous, increases his honor even further by decreasing slightly from his fortune so that those beneath him may eat. In this context, “mercy” feels like something imperious, a gift from people in power and something that the powerless, if they are to retain any scrap of dignity, must categorically reject.
When I was a kid I remember watching the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart (1995), and the film’s climax is when a stubborn and defiant William Wallace, facing intense pain and torture at the hands of King Edward’s minions, refuses to say the word “mercy” and screams, triumphantly, “freedom!” with such gusto that King Edward dies in his bed. There are other examples from film and literature where I feel the word has been misused and misapplied, but suffice to say that I think our entire understanding of the word and concept has been skewed and distorted into something really ugly, something that ought to be rejected as an affront to human dignity.
Enemies to goodness corrupt what is good so that it is useless. So let’s take the word “mercy” and wash it off a little, removing all the filth and grime that people have covered it with until it’s clean and pure. What I think you will find is that real “mercy” is this: mercy is when we defy the expectation so that we may relieve suffering. Mercy is a type of irony in which suffering will persist if we do nothing, so in doing something we cause the suffering to be less. I like this definition because it covers most uses of the word. And the readings for today cover every use of the word “mercy” and show us that since God is merciful, we are expected to be merciful as well.
from the Psalm
from the Psalm
The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
The Lord is kind and merciful.
-Psalm 103
In the Old Testament reading, King David had an opportunity to end the war between King Saul and himself by killing Saul in his sleep. David arrives in Saul’s camp and, through stealth, gets all the way to Saul’s tent, where he finds him asleep with a spear next to his head.
David’s companion, Abishai, suggested that David could end the war once and for all by allowing him to pick up the spear and skewer King Saul in his bedroll, but David replies, “Do not harm him, for who can lay hands on the Lord’s anointed and remain unpunished?”
David understood here the practical reality of mercy. In war, all bets are off, and the expectation is that one wins the war by any means necessary. But sometimes the means by which one achieves victory are just as important as the victory itself. David did not want to begin his rule through an act of violence.
The Second reading is an excerpt from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In the excerpt he reminds the Church at Corinth that we are of two bodies, earthly and heavenly, and that we must rise above the expectations of our earthly bodies to be more like Christ.
The Gospel
The Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
-Luke 6:27-38, emphasis mine
My favorite scene in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is when Bob Ewell goes to confront Atticus Finch at Tom Robinson’s house after the trial. Bob Ewell’s family technically won the trial, but Atticus, by revealing the truth, has ruined bob Ewell’s reputation. Bob Ewell spits in Atticus’s face. Atticus would have been well within his rights, I think most people would agree, to knock Bob Ewell’s teeth out, but instead, Atticus just stares at him silently, wipes off his face, and leaves.
Have you ever watched someone be rude to a waiter and then turn immediately with a smile to his dinner companion? It’s off-putting because we understand, sort of implicitly, that the rude customer reveals his true self to the waiter and puts on a false face for his date. The smile is a fraud, and she would do well to check her text messages and, feigning an emergency, depart. We are not kind to people because we want anything back from them. We are kind to people because we want to be kind people.
Jesus demands more of us than simply following the letter of the law or of performing in ways that are technically correct. He gives clear, explicit examples of merciful behaviors that go beyond the base and earthly expectations, not just as metaphors but as actual, practical exchanges that people have in real life.
I actually think this is the heart of Christianity, and it’s the part of Christianity that so many Christians have the hardest time with. We are merciful with each other not because we expect some sort of reward but because it is the right thing to do. You lend from your excess without hope of repayment; you are kind to people who can never do anything for you; you refuse to hurt those who would hurt you. Jesus actually gives us a concrete list of examples to follow, situations that we, thousands of years later, still experience.
You can demand repayment for money you lent: forgive the debt anyway. You can press charges against the poor who have taken from your excess: look the other way. You can answer screams and vitriol with your own words of hatred: use words of pity instead.
The heart of mercy is this: do what you can to relieve suffering, and do it with no expectation of a reward. You don’t have to be rich and powerful to help others, and you don’t have to surrender your dignity to accept help from others. Do what is good because you want to be good and for no other reason. Do not let the enemies of goodness define for you what is right and wrong, what is just and unjust, when you can hear the truth in your own heart. ~
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