By David Gibson
In the liturgical readings this fourth Sunday of Lent we hear first of infidelity among God's people. Their unfaithfulness and its consequences are depicted vividly, but soon the contrast is drawn; we are reminded by Ephesians 2:4- 10 that God is genuinely merciful and always faithful.

People everywhere have called out to God for mercy this year. With the global economic downturn, so many felt the pain of job losses or feared losing their homes. Some experienced a downward spiral into near desperation as high food costs collided with thin wallets to yield poorly stocked food shelves at home; often people feared more for their children than themselves.

People frequently pray for mercy when they feel at the mercy of events beyond their control. They pray for mercy when they feel alone with a mind-boggling predicament or when a darkening situation hinders them from clearly seeing a way forward.

A petition for mercy often is a prayer to be spared the worst suffering possible in one's current circumstances. It may also be a prayer for release from fear in order to rediscover hope and a sense of peace.

During the Mass we pray, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.” Sometimes, I confess, I barely hear the words, so accustomed have I grown to them. But I hear them whenever an uninvited situation thrusts itself into my life in a manner that gives rise to pain, or fear and anxiety, or distress. Suddenly I remember that the church habitually makes pleas for mercy a theme of prayer. Listen at Mass during Lent and you’ll hear of mercy.

“Mercy” is a basic term in the Christian vocabulary. But what does “mercy” mean? Apparently it means many things. Kindness: We say, “The Lord is kind and merciful.” The suggestion is that God’s kindness and mercy go together quite naturally. Compassion: The same can be said of divine compassion and mercy; often the church speaks of them in one breath.

Goodness: In the church’s prayer, God at once is good and merciful. Thus, the church prays, “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness.” Patience: Notably, God is merciful and patient at the same time. Pope John Paul II once said that “conversion to God always consists in discovering his mercy, that is, in discovering that love which is patient and kind.”

Love: You will discern from the preceding statement that divine love and mercy also are bound together.

Forgiveness: Of course, mercy and forgiveness go hand in hand. That is why the parable of the prodigal son so often is cited as a story about mercy. A father joyfully welcomes his wayward son home; we’re reminded that the God of mercy is a reconciling God.

This is a partial list of qualities coupled with God's mercy — a list I do not want to conclude, however, without noting how many times the Bible shows us that the God of mercy is devoted to the poor and people in distress. In Luke’s Gospel, Mary proclaims that God’s “mercy is from age to age,” that God raises “the lowly to high places” and gives “every good thing” to the hungry (1:50-53).

Certainly, believers are grateful that God is merciful and see in mercy an astonishing divine strength. But I wonder if the practice of mercy by members of the human family is always esteemed equally or regarded as a sign of strength.

Do merciful people fail to exact what is due them? Are merciful people sometimes judged weak in the assertiveness department? Are people strong or weak in our estimation when they:

1. Forgive others?

2. Sacrifice for someone distressed by circumstances?

3. Exercise patience?

4. Offer goodness to others, whether or not it is thought that these others have “earned” this?

“Blessed are the merciful,” says one beatitude. Pope John Paul II called this beatitude “ call to action.” In his 1980 encyclical Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy), he said, “Society can become ever more human only if we introduce [mercy] into the many-sided setting of interpersonal and social relationships.”

Later, in a 2002 homily on mercy, Pope John Paul expanded upon this beatitude. He said, “We must take a loving look around ourselves if we are to be aware of the neighbour by our side who — because of the loss of work, home, the possibility of maintaining his family in a decent manner and of educating his children — feels a sense of abandonment.”

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham, England, bluntly stated the case for mercy in November 2008. He said, “A family or society that is incapable of showing mercy to its weak and vulnerable is dead from within.”

“Mercy” is a basic of the Christian lexicon, but not solely because it describes God. For human individuals and communities, mercy characterizes the life that is God-like.

Christians believe that their own merciful behaviour makes God’s mercy present in the world now. That would make mercy one of their greatest strengths. —