Mercy

By Amy McFrederick OP ~ July 18, 2008

Isaiah 38: 1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Isaiah 38:10, 11, 12abcd, 16; Matthew 12: 1-8

Today’s readings speak to me of God’s mercy and our call to live out that same mercy in our daily lives.

William Barclay in commenting on today’s Gospel passage says: “The Scribes and Pharisees were entirely justified in finding fault with the disciples for breaking the law, and with Jesus for allowing them, if not encouraging them to do so.”   The Sabbath law forbids work on the Sabbath day, and over the years ‘work’ had been defined as 39 basic actions that were forbidden: among them reaping, winnowing, threshing, preparing a meal (all of this was to be done prior to the Sabbath).  Even anything which might symbolically be regarded as work was prohibited—to pluck ears of corn was regarded as a kind of reaping.  But Jesus by referring to 1 Samuel 21, when David and his men who were so hungry they entered the tabernacle and ate the loaves of bread which only the priests could eat, was teaching law must always be tempered by mercy, and that the claims of human need took precedence over any ritual custom.

By referring to the Sabbath work of the temple that the priests do so that the Temple worship could go on, he was reminding them that the worship offered to God took precedence over all the Sabbath laws.  “I say to you, something greater that the temple is here.”

Finally, Jesus quotes God’s word to Hosea the prophet: “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6) to remind us all that what God desires far more than ritual sacrifice is merciful kindness,  the spirit whose first law is the call of human need.  Barclay concludes by saying: “In this incident Jesus lays it down that the claim of human need must take precedence of all other claims.  The claims of worship, the claims of ritual, the claims of liturgy are important, but prior to any of them is the claim of human need.”  Yes,  “I desire mercy, not sacrifice…”   This is just another of many examples where Jesus reveals to us the Mercy of God.

Looking back at the first reading about Hezekiah: (Hezekiah means ‘God has strengthened’).  Have you ever had a “Hezekiah” experience?  When you were in desperate straits and cried bitterly to God and felt not only heard, but had a profound experience of God’s mercy to you personally?  God does not ordinarily bend the laws of nature every time we pray for a miracle, but when Mercy spills into our lives and consciousness, our hearts are filled with gratitude like Hezekiah expressed in today’s Responsorial Psalm.  It is important for us to remember those times, as well as those stories of God’s mercy shared with us by others around us.  Such memories serve as a constant call and reminder for us to abide in God’s Mercy, to live it out in all our interactions, as well as to be merciful with ourselves.

As we prepare to receive the Christ and each other in the Eucharist, I share with you a poem about the Mercy of God written by Jessica Powers.  It has been a great inspiration to me, and I hope it inspires you too…

The Mercy of God

I am copying down in a book from my heart’s archives

the day that I ceased to fear God with a shadow fear.

Would you name it the day that I measured my column of virtue

and sighted through windows of merit a crown that was near?

Ah, no, it was rather the day I began to see truly

that I came forth from nothing and ever toward nothingness tend,

that the works of my hands are a foolishness wrought in the presence

of the worthiest king in kingdom that never shall end.

I rose up from the acres of self that I tended with passion

and defended with flurries of pride;

I walked out of myself and went into the woods of God’s mercy,

and here I abide.

There is greenness and calmness and coolness, a soft leafy covering

from the judgment of sun overhead,

and the hush of His peace, and the moss of His mercy to tread.

I have naught but my will seeking God; even love burning in me

is a fragment of infinite loving and never my own.

and I fear God no more; I go forward to wander forever

in the wilderness made of His infinite mercy alone.

(from p. 1 of Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers)