More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Etymologically, “mercy” derives from misericordis, which means opening one’s heart to wretchedness.
The prophet speaks of shame, and shame is a grace: when one feels the mercy of God, he feels a great shame for himself and for his sin.
Venerable Bede. When describing the calling of Matthew, he writes: “Jesus saw the tax collector, and by having mercy chose him as an Apostle, saying to him, ‘Follow me.’ ” This is the translation commonly given for the words of Saint Bede.
I like to translate miserando with a gerund that doesn’t exist: mercifying. So, “mercifying and choosing” describes the vision of Jesus, who gives the gift of mercy and chooses, and takes unto himself.
‘Lord, forgive me if I have forgiven too much. But you’re the one who gave me the bad example!’
recognizing oneself as a sinner is a grace.
“But are you sorry that you are not sorry?”
Only he who has been touched and caressed by the tenderness of his mercy really knows the Lord.
A FEW years ago, in a school in northern Italy, a teacher of religion explained the parable of the Prodigal Son to her students, then asked them to write freely about it and reflect on the story they had just heard. The large majority of the students interpreted the ending in the following way: the father received the prodigal son, punished him severely, and then forced him to live with the servants so that he would learn not to squander the family’s wealth.
The Church does not exist to condemn people but to bring about an encounter with the visceral love of God’s mercy.
None of us should speak of injustice without thinking of all the injustice we have committed before God. We must never forget our origins, the mud of which we were made, and this counts above all for those who are ordained.
When there is the kind of repetitiveness that becomes a habit, you cannot grow in the awareness of yourself or of the Lord; it would be like not acknowledging that you have sinned or that you have wounds that need healing. The routine confession is a bit like the example of the dry cleaner that I mentioned earlier. So many people are wounded, not least psychologically, and do not even realize that they are. That is what I have to say about people who confess by rote….
The conduct of the scholars of the law is often described in the words of the Gospel: they represent the principal opposition to Jesus; they challenge him in the name of doctrine. This approach is repeated throughout the long history of the Church.
“A small step, in the midst of great human limitations, can be more pleasing to God than a life that appears outwardly in order but moves through the day without confronting great difficulties.”
“If God limited himself to only justice, he would cease to be God and would instead be like human beings who ask merely that the law be respected. But mere justice is not enough. Experience shows that an appeal to justice alone risks destroying it.”
In the Book of Wisdom (12:18–19) we read: “But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us. You taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are righteous must be kind; and you gave your children reason to hope that you would allow them to repent for their sins.”
Mercy is an element that is important, even indispensable, for human relationships, so that brotherhood may exist. Justice on its own is not enough. With mercy and forgiveness, God goes beyond justice, he subsumes it and exceeds it in a higher event in which we experience love, which is at the root of true justice.
The corrupt man is the one who sins but does not repent, who sins and pretends to be Christian, and it is this double life that is scandalous. The corrupt man does not know humility, he does not consider himself in need of help, he leads a double life.
Corruption is not an act but a condition, a personal and social state in which we become accustomed to living. The corrupt man is so closed off and contented in the complacency of his self-sufficiency that he does not allow himself to be called into question by anything or anyone. The self-confidence he has built up is based on a fraudulent behavior: he spends his life taking opportunistic shortcuts at the cost of his own and others’ dignity. The corrupt man always has the gall to say: “It wasn’t me!”—my
Mercy is divine and has to do with the judgment of sin. Compassion has a more human face. It means to suffer with, to suffer together, to not remain indifferent to the pain and the suffering of others.
The Greek verb that indicates this compassion is σπλaγχνίζομaι [splanchnízomai, ed.], which derives from the word that indicates internal organs or the mother’s womb.
Seven Corporal Works of Mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, dress the naked, house the pilgrims, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, bury the dead.
Spiritual Works of Mercy: advise those in doubt; teach the ignorant; admonish the sinners; console the afflicted; forgive offenses; be patient with annoying people; pray to God for both the living and the dead.
