Let’s always be merciful

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

ONE of the things that we are encouraged to learn and develop during this Lenten season is how to be merciful always. This we can gather from the gospel of St. Luke where we hear Christ telling his disciples:

“Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given to you: good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.” (6,36-38)

It’s quite clear that what Christ was telling his disciples, and now us, is to reflect the very love and generosity of God to everyone, irrespective of how they are to us. Yes, we need to sort out all our differences and conflicts as best that we can, but knowing our wounded condition, we can only go so far in that regard. What is important is that no matter where our justice can only reach, we should never fail to show mercy to everyone.

Christ himself showed us how to live by this standard when, in spite of all the preaching and miracles he did for the people, he just submitted himself, completely sinless as he was, to death by crucifixion without any complaint if only to save us, to recover us from our alienation from God in whose image and likeness we have been created, and in whose life and nature we are supposed to share.

And so, whatever differences and conflicts we may have among ourselves, whatever mistakes and failures we commit, we just 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 our 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.

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.

            And no matter how far our justice can only take us, we should be in the end  always merciful. This is how God treats us. This should also how we should treat one another.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com