Thursday September 21st: Mercy, not Sacrifice.

If we are to emulate Jesus, we also, need to show mercy/love to others.

Matthew 9:9-13

We often sacrifice people in mockery, name-calling, sarcasm, backbiting, jealousy, unfair criticism. I have heard stories of persons in parish ministry considered “not worthy”,” living in sin” yet receiving communion. The judgement is rampant. We all need the mercy/love of God for our sins, faults and failings, in other words to trust in His love.

As we seek God’s mercy/love, so too, we need the mercy/love of each other. If we are to emulate Jesus, we also, need to show mercy/love to others in our family, neighborhood, parish, on the road, our politicians, the bandits who invade our homes. As the recall of the death penalty and flogging is being revived in our country, the teaching of Jesus is instructive. Jesus, eating and drinking with sinners, challenged the Pharisees to a new understanding of religion, a new mindset.

He is calling us to that same understanding. Go out to those in need as the synodal way of being church – to the margins, listening, discerning, eating and drinking with the marginalized. Prayer can help us be merciful in word and in deed.