What does it mean to be merciful? I think the word mercy has been overused and has become a buzzword. We talk much about mercy, but we are some of the most unmerciful people in the world. Too many of us expect tolerance and respect when it comes to our certain worldviews and lifestyles, but once we disagree with someone, we immediately impose our particularities on others. We like to think that we are more educated, enlightened, understanding, and progressive than others, so we have the right to let others know what is “true” according to our particular interpretations. Nonetheless, false mercy perpetuates self-centered righteousness and vicious impositions of opinionated and manipulated controls upon minorities by the popular masses. If we want to be true to who we are, we have to seek both peace and mercy from the Lord, or else we will always remain restless and become resentful when faced with humanistic differences and failures.
For us, especially Christians, we believe that true peace can only come from the Lord. Peace is not just a mere absence of war and violence; it is the ability to rest in Him who loves us. Contrary to our post-modern, selfish, individualistic, and egocentric worldview, God does not exist to make us happy. He created this world out of love — the self-giving love that exists within the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and made us in His image and likeness so we can love Him and one another just as He has loved us. However, due to our self-centered desire to be in control, we gave into the false love of self and others before Him. Even though we disobeyed, betrayed, abandoned, and strayed away from Him, He never gave up on us. Throughout the ages, He called us back to Him and made a covenant with His chosen people.
Even when we were unfaithful and abandoned Him for lesser goods, He was never unfaithful to us. In the fullness of time and grace, He came to save us. He chose to live like us in all things but sin; furthermore, He chose to die a painful and horrific death to remind us that we are worth loving and redeeming. He took no shortcuts or quick choices but chose to give Himself totally and completely in loving us, even if it meant that very painful, shameful, and harsh death on the Cross. If we truly understand the crucifixion, especially how the Romans used it to set a public example so that no one would ever oppose them, we would know how much Christ Jesus really loves us! One literally dies from suffocation with the crucifixion. After public humiliations and tortures, they are hung on their own cross to slowly expire, and as their strength gives out, their body weight drags them down while their lungs collapse, resulting in that slow, torturous, and painful death. The one who is crucified is literally choked to death by his own weight at the end.
If we understand that reality and how God — the One who created the whole universe with all its ever-expanding wonders — chose to embrace that in order to show His real, intimate, and personal love for us, we should be speechless and humbled by His very humble and sacrificial love for us.
That was why the Lord chose to be merciful and affirm the faith of His very own disciples instead of simply condemning and shunning them because of their cowardice, betrayal, and rejection. When He appeared to them, He often greeted them with, “Peace be with you.” Why was that important? Even though it sounds insignificant now, He tried to calm their nerves, fears, and reservations with His presence.
After losing everything that they had come to know in the last three-plus years of His public ministry, they were fearful of being tracked down, hunted, and hurt by others. They were locked up in their own shame, guilt, and despair. Even though they saw Jesus as their Teacher, perhaps a Messiah in a social and political sense or a Prophet, not many of them understood His divinity, as well as His true mission and purpose for which He chose to come to live amongst us. They were fearful, and so they isolated themselves. I think we can identify and relate to the disciples, too.
In our very own lives, we tend to push people and isolate ourselves when we do not get things our way or when life gets too hard. When we get hurt or suffer because of others, we let our miseries and pities eat us alive as we push other people away. Many times, this is when unhealthy co-dependent relationships creep in, as well as addictions, self-medicated actions, and destructive choices. When we think we lose control and purpose, we put up walls or begin to use other people and means through manipulative approaches, but are still locked up in our own self-created hell. In the darkest moments of life, we begin to realize that we cannot save ourselves, and the only One who can give us peace is the Lord! Hence, peace needs to be sought as we trust and abandon ourselves to Him who loves us. Over and over again, we need to return to Him, step outside of our miseries and pains, and go beyond our fears and reservations in order to find our rest in Him.
When we seek God and rest in His peace, we are able to endure the wrongdoings, failures, and imperfections of this world. Even when this life and its storms try to batter, beat, and falsify the truth, we can endure them by anchoring ourselves in His never-changing, everlasting, and eternal love. This is the only truth that sets us free from worldly manipulations and falsities because He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Only in Him can we find mercy and forgiveness for the many times we have strayed away, abandoned, or forgotten Him. When we are able to recognize that we can rest and find our peace in His love, we will be able to be merciful in embracing all the failures and imperfections of this world.
Not only did He create and save us, but He also continues to sanctify and guide us with His grace so we know how to return HOME, to the embrace of the Trinitarian love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the communion of saints in our eternal homeland. This is our true mission and purpose — our final destiny — so the journey that gets us there can be embraced and endured for the sake of this ultimate and final goal. Because this world is not the end, the journey to our heavenly homeland will be a long, challenging, and hard one, but we shall not give up because all of this is passing away and because they will come and go.
There is no perfection in life except for Him and His love for us. We are all imperfect, broken, and fail to love many times — over and over again. Therefore, mercy cannot be a one-time matter or decision! As a matter of fact, mercy has to be a daily, personal, intimate, and willful decision. If we do not choose and practice mercy, it remains a buzzword with no purpose and meaning. If we talk about mercy but never practice it, we remain hypocrites who speak so much but never choose to love as God has loved us. Hence, the world will get colder, dimmer, and more hopeless when we do not find our peace in Him and choose to practice mercy.
So, I would like to invite you to reflect on how we can put into practice mercy each and every day of life. It might not be much in the eyes of the world, but as long as we are intentional and personally willing to choose mercy and find peace in Him, we are able to instill small moments of grace, understanding, patience, and forgiveness in a very self-centered, pitiful, hopeless, and harsh world. We might not change other people who are too focused, worried, and occupied with themselves and find it easier to attack others in order to justify their self-righteousness, but we can and do have the power to instill His life-changing peace and mercy by how we choose to live our lives. Authentic mercy is so needed because we have rarely seen it enlivened nowadays; therefore, let us be merciful and share God‘s loving peace — one person at a time.
Peace be with you.