Sometimes I can’t help but think that the world doesn’t know what mercy truly means. Though everyone seems to talk about it, I feel as though we often get it wrong.
Many people who talk about mercy seem to talk about something they feel they ought to have. They feel that they have been deprived of something, and the merciful thing is to have it back.
When we talk that way, we seem to see mercy as something that is rightfully ours. Could it be the we are somehow confused between the ideas of mercy and justice?
Is it mercy that we want? Or is it justice?
If mercy is something we think we deserve, it is understandable why many of us feel so angry when we don’t get the things we want. We feel indignant. Somebody has taken away what is ours and if we don’t get it back, we feel that we have been deprived of mercy.
But if we truly know mercy, maybe we’d know more also what humility means. To be given mercy is to be given a kindness we do not deserve. It is not something focused upon our goodness, but upon the goodness of those who have acted mercifully toward us.
Before we understand mercy, perhaps we should also understand first what justice means. We should know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. And if we admit we are wrong, and we are forgiven instead of being punished, if we are loved instead of being despised, maybe then we’d have a better idea what mercy truly means.
“For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. But God commends his own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”—Romans 5:7–8, WEBBE
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