Blessed are the Merciful

Blessed are the merciful; they shall receive mercy. It’s easy to say how God is merciful. Poor

Lazarus was with Abraham while the rich men was across that awful divide (Lk.16:23) And Jesus

told the murderer hanging on the cross next to His, this day you will be with me in paradise

(Lk.23:43).That’s the divine mercy, swift and magnanimous.

It might not be so obvious how we creatures can be merciful. But we need the virtue when love

of neighbor calls. There’s that image of the Samaritan’s tender hands (Lk.10:25). We can imitate

him by holding a door open for a cripple. We might even let a speeding car get in front of us. That’s

mercy as real as applying wine and bandages.

Then there’s the merciful mind. A prayer for peace asks God “that the people of Ukraine may be

granted peace, and the people of Russia may demand peace.” That’s surely how God likes to think.

We might imitate it and step in when a friend is being cruelly teased or harshly criticized.

And we all need merciful hearts. We can do little but pray for far-out extremists on either side

but we do need to do that, with sincere hearts. And every one of us needs to keep clear that

perfectionitis—the dread among Christians that we’re never going to be good

enough—perfectionitis is the Covid-19 of God’s chosen. The vaccine is letting Jesus inject mercy

into our bloodstream, which is the way we will be comforted.

Fr. Joe Tetlow, S.J.