Advent Day 5/December 11

Mercy Is Sensitive

Today’s Reading

Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel:
I, the LORD, your God,
teach you what is for your good,
and lead you on the way you should go.
If you would hearken to my commandments,
your prosperity would be like a river,
and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
Your descendants would be like the sand,
and those born of your stock like its grains,
Their name never cut off
or blotted out from my presence.

(cf. Isaiah 48.17-19)

Today’s  Reflection

   Prophets raise eyebrows—John the Baptist ate bugs and wore animal skins.  But mercy rides on empathy (from the German einfuhlung, to “feel inside” of another).  Only those who can relate to people by sharing their feelings can have mercy.

   Jesus responded unpredictably and according to people’s needs.  He fasted forty days in the desert; then he lived so normally around others he was called “a glutton and a drunkard.”  He spoke with God on the mountaintops; but on ground level he was jostled by crowds and mixed so freely that he was labeled the “friend of sinners.”  He raged against the Pharisees, but showed tenderness to a woman caught in adultery and tolerance to an unmarried Samaritan with a live-in mate.  Like Paul later, he “became all things to all,” keeping the law to be credible to law observers, but breaking the law to minister to those “outside the law” (see 1 Corinthians 9.19; Matthew 12.1; John 4.9).

   At Vatican II, Cardinal Leger of Montreal called for “mercy” based on sensitivity.  He said: “The splendor of the ornaments and titles we bishops use, often against our wills, are harmful to our pastoral ministry, especially to the poor.”

   Bottom line: we can’t help people if we don’t try to understand how they feel.

--Fr. David M. Knight

Response

• Ponder why Fr. Knight points out that Jesus acted “unpredictably and according to people’s needs”…
• Think of a time when you acted beyond what was expected or predictable because of someone’s need…

• Identify an existing need or concern which you could only address by acting beyond what is expected or predictable…

• Resolve to help someone you might normally overlook by first trying to understand how they feel…

Advent Prayer
Lord, I have let myself be deceived.  In a thousand ways I have shunned your love.  Yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord; take me once more into your redeeming embrace.  You are the Lord, Emmanuel--God-with-Us.

Today’s reflection is excerpted from “A Season of Mercy—Daily Reflections, Practices and Prayers” by Fr. David M. Knight.  Copyright by Twenty-Third Publications.  Used with permission.