Jesus also said, “Those who show mercy will have mercy shown to them” (Matthew 5:7).
.. When you do not know you need mercy and forgiveness yourself, you invariably become stingy in sharing it with others
.. we have developed penal and judicial systems that think of mercy as an affront to justice. We seem to have a craven fear of–and even hatred for–anyone outside our own kind of people. After centuries of legalistic religion, sacraments administered in a juridical fashion, and biblical fundamentalism, the very word “mercy” seems newly introduced into our vocabulary–as if it were from a language other than our own, a truly foreign concept. Mercy refuses our capitalistic calculations. Most religion now offers no corrective to the culture, but largely reflects cultural self-interest.
.. Any candidate is praised and deemed worthy of high office because we think, “He speaks his mind” (when it is actually our prejudices that he is speaking aloud). Two thousand years of Jesus’ teaching on compassion, love, forgiveness, and mercy (not to mention basic kindness and respect) are all but forgotten in a narcissistic rage. Western culture has become all about the self, and that is just way too small an agenda. The very self that Jesus said “must die” is now just about all that we think about!
Grace and Mercy
Love has two lovely daughters, twins called grace and mercy. Like identical twins, they are often indistinguishable: Grace is the inner freedom to be merciful. Mercy is grace in action.