What is God's Mercy all about?

August 20, 2023 

There is one common theme that runs across all three readings this Sunday.  It is the theme of mercy being offered to all. Not just to the chosen ones, not just to those who believe in Jesus, but to everyone.  

The Gospel tells us the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman who challenges even Jesus when he tells her that he was sent only to help the lost sheep of the house of Israel and that therefore it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.  In response, she answers boldly that “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table”.  And so, a Jesus, who earlier in the Gospel, had told his disciples only to preach to the children of Israel, realizes that faith can be found elsewhere too, has compassion on the woman and heals her child.  This theme is further strengthened by today's first reading from Isaiah which tells us that God makes no distinction between the chosen people and the others and will make joyful all who join themselves to the Lord, “for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples”.  The second reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans also says that God offers his mercy to all.

So, what does God’s mercy mean?  Is God like an omnipotent king/judge who decides who gets what - both good and bad - and therefore we need His mercy so that despite our mistakes, he shows us mercy and does not send terrible sufferings our way?

 But such an understanding of God as a judge goes against all that we read in other parts of the Bible. Jesus was repeatedly teaching his disciples that God is our ABBA Father who loves all human beings, and he sends his rain on the just and the unjust, who forgives always, even seventy times seven. So then what does God’s mercy mean?

The term ‘mercy’ seems to be the common English translation offered in our Bibles of many different words found in the original Hebrew (Old Testament) and in Greek (New Testament).   The meanings of these original Hebrew words, range from having compassion, sympathising, showing favour, being considerate, being generous, offering loving kindness, steadfast love, and goodness.  The meanings of the original Greek words range from compassion, sympathy, forgiveness, relieving pain, and pity. And this whole range of similar and yet not exactly the same meanings should remind us once again that we are always limited in trying to understand what any attribute we ascribe to God means, both because of the limitations of any translation, and even more by the fact that we  inevitably  have to use ‘plant language’ (see “Is my relationship with the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit?”, June 4, 2023), or analogous language.   Yes, they all point in the general direction of what God’s mercy means, but none of them holds the entire meaning.  And to equate mercy with an omnipotent judge who in his mercy does not punish us even though we deserve it, may be a misunderstanding of what God’s mercy means.

So perhaps the answer is not to look for one word to help us understand this term, God’s mercy, but like in poetry, we may need to look for an image that pushes us in the direction of understanding what something means.  And so, since Jesus taught us that God is our Abba (the commonly used terms in English would NOT be just the formal FATHER, but rather what a child loving calls his/her father, words like Daddy, Papa, etc), I asked myself what is the relationship I have with my children whom I love. And it struck me, and each parent could ask this of him/herself, namely, “what is the relationship or attitude a loving parent has with his or her own children?”  And I remembered the mother of my friend whose son is an addict, and though her own daughter begged her to keep him in a place for rehabilitation, she finds that very difficult that while she is alive her son should stay in an institution, and so  allows him to come back and stay with her, where he creates havoc for her - but she still cannot tell him to go away.  Or another mother, who is 92 years old, and is herself very weak and can hardly walk, and can hardly remember things, and who, on hearing that her daughter is going in for a surgery, wants desperately to come and look after her daughter.  Or the father of the Prodigal son who accepts his son back with great joy, even though the boy has NOT repented at all, but is only coming back because he is famished. And I joined all that with my own experience as a father, a parent, and I realise that whatever happens, I think I can never reject my children.  And like the mother who actually ‘enables’ her son’s addiction, even though sometimes her inability to offer tough love is actually harmful to the child, - yet there is something in me as a parent that cannot, really cannot, reject my child or even allow him/her to feel rejected. What is that attribute - is it a combination of all the different meanings I have listed above of Hebrew and Greek words?  A combination of  compassion, sympathy, showing favour, being considerate, generosity, loving kindness, steadfast love, goodness, forgiveness, relieving pain, and pity?  Perhaps THAT attribute of many parents - I won’t call it love, since some may actually say that such an attribute actually harms the child, and is NOT love  - may point us in the direction of understanding God’s mercy.  And so we find much evil in the world, and much good, - and God has “mercy” on all, a God who in his/her mercy sends rain on the just and unjust alike.

Or as Pope Francis recently said: 'God is a Father who does not disown any of his children'.  So when the woman caught in adultery is brought before Jesus, he tells her that he doesn’t condemn her.  When Peter denies Jesus, Jesus looks at him across a darkly lit courtyard, but doesn’t condemn him, yet looks at him with sorrow.  And when Judas is going out to betray him, Jesus tells him: Go and do what you have to do quickly - but does not condemn him.  Perhaps in these images we perhaps get a glimpse of an understanding of God’s mercy, even though we need to keep reminding ourselves that it is still ‘plant’ language. 

And finally, why do we ask for mercy if God is already like that?  Not because God needs our prayer before offering us mercy, - but because prayer is meant to change US, not to change God.  And so by asking for mercy we are acknowledging that we are not living ‘as loving lives’ as we are called to live. And in that humble acknowledgement, we ourselves are taking the first step towards changing ourselves.  For why does the father of the prodigal son keep looking every day towards the horizon to see whether his son is coming back - rather than go searching for him?  Perhaps because the Father can only wait for the son to take the first step, however inadequate that first step is.  Because till the son takes that first step, the father cannot show him ‘mercy’, however much he may want to.   

First Reading: Isaiah 56: 1, 6-7

Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

Second Reading: Romans 11: 13-15, 29-32

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead! 

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

 

Gospel: Matthew 15: 21-28

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.