The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
Psalm 145: 9
The subject of mercy should concern us all. There can hardly be any who do not need it — there are surely none who cannot use it. Mercy is the denominator of Christ. In an early homily, Pope Francis argued that “Mercy is the Lord’s most powerful message,” and he called on the Church to exert this as a daily necessity. But as always with this humble realist, Pope Francis acknowledged the difficulty mercy poses for all of us — both in remembering to dispense it in our daily lives, but also in being open to receiving it from God. “It is not easy to trust oneself to the mercy of God, because [God’s mercy] is an unfathomable abyss — but we must do it.”
The Latin word for mercy is Misericórdia, from the roots miser meaning wretched, and cordis meaning heart. It is also the name of a dagger used in the Middle Ages to deliver the final death stroke to a dying adversary. As an altar boy I thought the word was ‘miserable cord’. I imagined the hunchback of Notre Dame pulling on his miserable cord to ring the joyless bells. My friend said I was crazy; that in fact the word was ‘miserable chorus.’ Yet when the extraordinary strains of Mozart’s Misericórdia Domini broke out we knew we were both wrong.
Mercy, of course, is central to Christian thought and practice, and it is also a lynchpin of Pope Francis’s call to arms — his reminder to all, from the highest to the humblest station — that we must reach out to those in need with compassion and mercy. In our contemporary world we often only imagine mercy as the subject of dramatic films, the penultimate scene in a movie where someone is spared a savage fate. And given recent headlines and violence in the Middle East, mercy, in that context, seems in short supply. And yet there are also those, like Albertans Amanda Lindhout and Reverend Dale Lang, who speak passionately of forgiveness and concern. Lindhout forgave her captors in Somalia despite the horrific treatment that was meted out to her; Rev. Lang forgave his young son’s teenage killer in a high school shooting.
While these are examples of overwhelming and humbling compassion, it is equally important that we deliver mercy in more modest contexts: in how we negotiate with others, especially those of differing views, and in how we forgive perceived injustices against us. Most importantly, as Pope Francis has insisted, it is also critical that we “do good to those who are unable to reciprocate.” When he speaks of the role of Mother Church, he speaks of a teacher nurturing good in others. As a teacher, and as president of St. Mary’s University in Calgary, this metaphor resonates strongly for me. “A good teacher,” Pope Francis says, “does not get lost in the details, but points to what is essential so that the child or student can find meaning and joy in life.” To do this we must emulate Christ. “Jesus, teaches by example, and uses words to illuminate the meaning.”
Such is the mission of a university — to help our students bring meaning to their lives, but also to instill in them a passion to bring grace to others. As Pope Francis puts it, mercy “overcomes every obstacle, knocks down every wall and brings you to always seek the face of…the person. And it is mercy that changes hearts and lives; that can regenerate a person and allow them to reintegrate themselves in society.
