Beatitudes V

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."

I wrap my head around this statement in so many ways.  I find myself concerned with the question of whether or not my receiving mercy is dependent on my giving mercy - as Jesus seems to have made similar statements elsewhere.  But of course when I do that I miss the whole point.  That kind of thinking is still very "me" focused.  There is also the battle against my innate sense of "justice" or "fairness".   Which as well is usually flawed. 

I can only pray that in every situation in which I find myself, my first thought would be "how can I bring mercy in this?"   Yet it is rarely my first thought.   I am a product of a culture of rights.  I delight when I get my rights, what I think is my due.

To be the kind of person who rejoices in being merciful.

What exactly is mercy? It is not the same as pity, it is akin, but not identical to compassion.   What are the conditions which make mercy possible?

First – there is power over the welfare of another.  You do not cry out for mercy from one who has no power over you – either to help or to harm.  Mercy is the Christian way of living in a relationship of power and authority.  I can have pity for one more powerful than I, over whose life I can have no influence. I cannot be merciful to such a person, for mercy implies that I have have the power to do or to act in a way that affects their life.

The good Samaritan showed mercy – he had power to act in the life of another, and he did.   The priest and the Levite who passed by the man on the road may have had pity, may even have had compassion, but they did not have mercy.  Mercy involves choice to act.

In another sense, Mercy does not necessarily have to do with what is right or just; rather, it often flies in the face of what is just and right.  In fact, it is really only to the guilty that mercy in this sense can be shown.

Comments

[Chuck Elves]

Just a thought Joe:

I've heard (I can't remember the exact quotation) that in grace God gives us what we do not deserve and in mercy He withholds that which we do deserve. Is mercy not holding back, while grace and compassion are extending. In the case of the good Samaritan he went the extra mile. By your argument he was not in a position to hurt the man but he did show compassion.

I guess my question is 'Is it unmerciful to not help someone or is it simply uncompassionate?"

[Joe]

Chuck - I think you rightly point out what mercy is in the last sense that I began to mention -"it is only to the guilty that mercy can be shown". That is, I think, one large sense of mercy on God's part - forgiving the guilty (like me). And I think you are right that the "other half" on God's part is extending grace.

The other sense in which I see Jesus using the word is in the context of the Good Samaritan. The sense of the term there seems (to me in my reading) to imply some kind of action, which follows upon the feeling of pity which the Samaritan had upon seeing the man in distress. (got do do a further word study, but that's my academic side coming out...) And the whole thing is set in the context of acting out love of God and love of neighbour.

So, to answer your question, I would suggest that compassion (lit= to suffer along with) is more akin to an identification with the sufferings of another, which is probably the first step in acting to do something about it, which I take to mean showing mercy. But it all falls under learning to love God and neighbour...which I'm really bad at...