Mercy

“ And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. ”

The Love Chapter of St. Paul in 1 st Corinthians has been read at weddings, printed in calling cards, extolled from pulpits, and much misunderstood for centuries. The worst that has been done to it is the new Biblical translations that simply call it “ love ,” instead of charity , or its Greek term Agape . Our concept of love limits the meaning of this wonderful explanation of Spiritual grace to sentimentality or ardent amour. It is far greater than these.

God is simple . That was the conclusion of St. Thomas Aquinas. In his great Summa Theologica , Aquinas uses Socratic logic to ask and answer many questions about God. In a fascinating way, Aquinas debates both sides of propositions, calling upon a kind of divine reason to define terms and logically set aside objections, one by one. In this examination, he reasons that God is simple. What does that mean? God has no parts, no moods, no changes in character. He doesn't grow wiser in time. He is constant and complete in every instant: God cannot be any less than totally God at all times in every situation. Therefore, it is our own humanist outlook that makes Him out as kind one day and wrathful the next; judgmental against one person and merciful toward another—inconsistent, capricious, unstable, or emotionally driven. If God is God, that won't do at all.

God is the totality of many things. He is jealous over us humans, meaning He loves us and wants us to be His own and not belong to a false god or to the devil. He is all-powerful, all knowing, available to every person at every place: there is nothing He cannot reach and act upon. He loves with a complete, unselfish, sacrificial love that is unconditional and passionate. He utterly rejects evil and sin as unworthy of His creation. He is wise above the thoughts of any and knows the outcome of every deed. He is good, in fact, He is the very definition of goodness. He can't do evil, make a mistake, or cause things to go badly. At every point, in all that God does, His love is completely expressed; but so also is His righteousness, His justice, His purity, and His judgment against sin.

These are not contradictory in God, as they may be in us. We may feel conflicted between truth and mercy, between jealousy and generosity, between love of one and love of another. In us rages a turmoil of competing emotions, loyalties, desires and plans. We choose between evils. We tread with care between calamity and chaos. God is not like that at all. He is constant, unruffled, uncomplicated, simple. Everything God feels, and every motive He has is perfect, completely unified with all other things God feels and every other motive He has. Whatever He does, it is right and He has no regrets. If we see such regret in God, it is our projection of our own imperfect natures upon a God who is perfect and makes no mistakes.

Thus, faith, hope and love are not competing in us, but complimentary. If the greatest is love, let's see what is meant by the word the King James calls “ charity .”

Agape , the Greek word St. Paul used here means a godly unselfish love that does good even to unworthy objects. God saves mankind by Jesus dying on a cross—the ultimate agape , the totally sacrificial act for people who are evil and who don't love Him or believe in Him. Mercy is as good a word, as is grace . Mercy is compassion for those in misery. Mercy makes life better for one suffering. Grace is unearned favor given to unworthy objects. Thus, God's love, mercy and grace are inseparable, are actually differing words to describe one immense fact about God: His charity .

A blind man called out to Jesus and Christ's disciples considered his cries like we might a street beggar hustling for spare change. “No, get out of here, you bum!” This man was undaunted by their rebukes, but called for mercy . Everywhere Jesus went He was met by claims on His mercy: by the blind, the lame, the demon-possessed, lepers, and those whose loved ones were dying. In “mercy” it is understood that the favor asked is not out of duty or debt. Jesus didn't owe anyone a thing. He could have walked on and been perfectly in His rights. It is certain that Jesus walked right by a lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple several times, as that same beggar had been there for years and was still there begging when Peter and John encountered him after Christ's ascension. In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, Peter and John mercifully brought down from heaven the man's healing.

Blind Bartimaeus kept calling out to Christ. Jesus asked what he wanted. Everyone knows Jesus knew the answer to this, but He wanted the man to ask it. “ Lord, that I may receive my sight.” “Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.” The man confessed his predicament, made himself weak by placing himself at the mercy of another, and was commended by God for it through the merciful healing of Christ's love.

We too need healing. We too are weak. We too have needs unmet and the greatest need we have is deeper fellowship with God. If we are too proud to ask, too self-assured to put ourselves out, too invested in our image of accomplishment, self-esteem, confidence, dignity, health or wealth to beg for mercy, we may never see mercy. For mercy is given where mercy is received. It has been said the door to heaven is so low, you can't enter except upon your knees.

The Psalms are full of such cries for mercy, or agape, from God. “ Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed; Consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: I am desolate and afflicted; I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly; Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” Psalms 6:2; 9:13; 25:16; 31:9; 51:1 You may wonder at the words in many of the Introits used at the start of our Eucharistic liturgies, words of pain and need expressed toward God. Is it unseemly for an Episcopalian to have desperate need for God? When we recite the General Confession, does it pain you to say, “ We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we… have committed… Against thy Divine Majesty… We do earnestly repent… The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Forgive us all that is past.”

The truth is, we need forgiveness. We need it badly. We need God's mercy, not His congratulations. Sure, it will be wonderful to hear Him welcome us as good and faithful servants, but we must first know who we are, and why He had to come save us. The Psalmist also sang: “ Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Psalm 85:10 This was made true in the Person of Jesus Christ. Mercy and truth, together. We can't obtain God's mercy unless we also receive His truth. The truth is we need Him, and we can't earn His love. It comes because we are honest about our need, and He is merciful. The prophet Micah wrote: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8

St. Paul would readily admit we need God's mercy and love. But God's character is also imprinted in us, is only waiting for His grace and our obedience to release it in us. We seek His love and mercy, and we must be loving and merciful ourselves. The Lord's Prayer combines God forgiving us with our forgiveness of others. The one is conditioned on the other. Jesus said on the Mount, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7 and “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:36

“For, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love (or charity, or mercy, or a kind and generous heart), I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have merciful, loving, kind charity, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have God's kind of love, it profits me nothing. For He is patient, kind, not jealous; does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; does not seek His own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God's love never fails…”

Mercy, love, charity, kindness, grace—these characteristics of God are all one in Him. We seek the benefit of God's loving nature, and we submit our needs to Him as needy people. Without God's gracious, unmerited love, we are already damned. Without the hope of everlasting life extended on those stretched out arms of Jesus on His Cross, we have no hope. We humble ourselves and receive, but then He commands that we do likewise: be merciful, be forgiving, be loving, be gracious, be like the Father. At His great heart is a core value, a characteristic that combines every other power and divine attribute of God's great Being: Love, more like mercy than romance, more like passion than charity, more like God than ourselves. “Faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

PFH+