Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Matthew 5:7 NABRE
What is interesting about our humanity is that we must learn to be detached from our achievements, knowing God will not judge us for our successes, but on the deepest intentions in our hearts, which are sometimes hidden. Yet we must still act, we must do something, we cannot be content stopping at our good intentions. We must be “in” the world but not “of” the world. We have this fifth beatitude from Jesus, “Blessed are the merciful” happy are they who act mercifully. We must ”do” mercy. If we want to follow Jesus we must practice compassion and mercy towards others. This means putting others first, helping someone who might be poorer, or smaller, or needier, or more broken or perhaps it means helping someone who has more than us. Mercy is linked closely to forgiveness. Mercy requires that we do not seek justice but go beyond it. We must “see” the other person to provide, we must know them, know in a very intimate sense. We must recognize their suffering, be able to push aside their acts of violence or anger, we must overlook their poor behavior toward us or someone we love. We are not put off by a closed, even aggressive attitude of the person to whom we are offering mercy. All of which requires the help of the Holy Spirit. We cannot on our own show mercy to someone who wants to hurt us, we need special graces. Just seeking these special graces and receiving them is a blessing. We must be merciful as often as possible to get it right, practice makes perfect as they say.
If we show mercy we will be shown mercy. We cannot survive receiving what we justly deserve, we depend on the mercy of God. So if we require mercy we must show mercy for others. Then we are blessed.
Who needs your mercy? Are you able to give mercy easily?
If we show mercy we will be shown mercy. We cannot survive receiving what we justly deserve, we depend on the mercy of God. Click To Tweet#bible #godisgreat #jesus #christianity #dailybibleverse @youversion #BeAnEncourager #mercy #blessed #Matthew #everybodyalways #god #jesuschrist #jesussaves #godisgood #dailydevotion #biblestudy #scripture #bibleverse #verseoftheday #pray #prayer #goodnews #loveeachother #godisgreat #thisVineyard #youversion #everythingalways