Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Merciful

Happy are people who show mercy,
because they will receive mercy. 
Matthew 5:7

Mercy is a gift.
Offered, it returns to us;
Received, it flows out.
HAIKU

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

At last, here is a beatitude that makes intuitive sense, in contrast to the first four we have considered, which struck me as counter-intuitive at first.  What we offer to others comes back to us in kind.  The goodness we dispense is like the goodness we receive.  It envisions a way of being that is fair and reasonable.  Yet like the other beatitudes, there is more than first meets the eye; there is greater depth even as this first layer of understanding rings true.

With this beatitude there is also a shift in direction.  The first four have focused on aspects of the inner life — spiritual poverty, sorrow, humility, and deep desire.  With this beatitude we turn outward, to our relationships with those beyond us.  There is a rhythm in this, the back and forth between inner and outer, between contemplation and action.  This reminds us that each beatitude must be seen in the context of all the others.  We cannot live by one beatitude alone!

So What is Mercy? 

When I reflect on mercy, the first notion that comes to me is mercy as a stance of forgiveness toward those persons who have harmed me, those I care for, or society in some way.  It is refraining from dishing it out in the same way someone has dealt with me.  When someone has deeply betrayed my trust I can cut myself off from them to avoid future betrayal or, in mercy, I can express my hurt and the damage caused and seek reconciliation and a new way of relating.  Or, when someone is brought before the court to be sentenced for a crime, they may throw themselves “on the mercy of the court” in the hope of receiving a lesser or suspended sentence. 

This strikes me as a common though narrow understanding of mercy – a lessening or setting aside of the penalty for a wrong committed.  John Philip Newell reflects this understanding well in his rendering of this beatitude: “Blessed are the forgiving, for they are free.”  In this, he is already pointing toward the mercy — freedom — that comes to us when we are merciful.

A broader understanding of mercy is not tied to harm done, but to the deep needs of the other.  Kindness might be a synonym for mercy in this view.  Mercy is being kind to others in response to their circumstances.  Here, mercy is providing aid, assistance, nurture, accompaniment, and healing to another.  It is responding out of our substance to those who lack essentials for thriving in life.  The organization, Mercy Corps, exemplifies this, for example.  It defines itself as “humanitarians working together on the front lines of today’s biggest crises to create a future of possibility, where everyone can prosper.”  In this view, mercy, whether from one person to another or through work in the societal arena, is the act of ameliorating deficits and providing the resources for thriving.  Tender action might be another way of defining mercy in this way.

Yet one more thing is needed to make this mercy — such kindness or tenderness must come from compassion, from love, or it is merely condescending assistance.  Mercy sees those in need as sisters and brothers, not as beggars or anonymous others to whom we give to ease our consciences.  In responding to the needs of others we recognize our own needs and the ways others have responded to us in mercy.  Mercy is loving kindness, warm compassionatetenderness.  It is grace in action.  Kindness without love is cold and keeps us separate.  Love without kindness is not love but some false look-alike. 

Even more than mercy as forgiveness, and mercy as loving kindness, is mercy in the broadest sense — a global stance of desire for and action toward the well-being and wholeness of any person who comes into our life.  It is a whole attitude of relationship, a way of being, not just the acts of kindness that flow from this stance.  Some have promoted the practice of doing “random acts of kindness.”  That is well and good as far as this goes, but if there is no love in these acts, its goodness is limited and does not deepen relationships.  True mercy is deeply personal.

This reminds me of a Peanuts cartoon I saw once.  In it, Lucy and Charlie Brown are philosophizing as they often did. Lucy, gazing up at the sky, says “I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand.”  A person acting from such a stance could indeed do a lot of good, and that is not to be dismissed.  But it is not mercy.

If mercy is a way of being, not just actions taken, then it strikes me as having certain qualities.  It is as unbounded as our circumstances permit.  We give from our abundances — our wealth, our time, our skills, our personhood.  It is enduring.  We do not just act once and turn our attention elsewhere; we are steadfast, we follow up, we continue in the relationship established by the acts of mercy.  And it is outgoing — it calls on us to give of ourselves in some way for the sake of the other.  It is an outward expression of our inner being. There is an element of sacrifice in this.

To be honest, I find what I’ve just written very challenging for myself.  I have experienced people who express mercy far more generously and sacrificially than I seem to do.  Yet I see these qualities as goals to aim at, not standards for judgement.  To the extent that I can be unbounded, enduring, and outgoing in my mercy, to that extent I am merciful.  I’m going in the right direction at least, and can aspire to do better.

To summarize, I see mercy as compassion in all its forms.  It is a way of being and action that leads to greater healing and wholeness in persons and in the world.  It is offering freely to others and indeed all creation that which is good.  Narrower definitions, such as helping out in need, or withholding a deserved punishment for the sake of a greater good, can be subsumed under this broader understanding.  Ultimately the deep good toward which mercy moves is loving relationship — with God, self, and others.

What Is the Ground of Mercy?

Like other virtues, mercy is not something that we can generate out of nothing or make happen by force of will.  We are not the authors of the mercy we offer.  Rather, mercy is grounded in our own sense of being the recipients of loving kindness or compassionate tenderness.  It derives from our experience of others who are merciful to us. 

More solidly, the mercy we provide to others is grounded in our experience and knowledge of the mercy of the mystery we may call God.  As we experience this divine love flowing into us, we grow in the capacity to let that very love flow through us to others, especially through acts of mercy.  And this is just what God desires from us; God wants us to become merciful ourselves.  “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6).  And, as expressed in the scripture quotation at the beginning of this blog: “…what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8).  To be merciful to others is to have the same divine attitude of mercy toward all others as God has for us.

Receiving Mercy

The beatitude contains both a command — Be merciful! ;  and a promise — You will be blessed by receiving mercy. The way this is expressed seems to be making a transactional statement.  “If you are merciful, then mercy will come to you.”  This is the aspect of the beatitude that may make us sense its reasonableness and sense of fairness.  Like begets like.  I scratch your back, you scratch mine.  I invite you to dinner, you invite me back.  It fits with the notion of reciprocity.  And there is a lot of goodness in reciprocity.  It builds relationships, creates community, and shares resources.

But something about this does not ring fully true for me.  It does not square with my image of God, though I know many see God as a fair judge who metes out blessings and curses according to each one’s deserving.  But such a God is not merciful in the ways we have been considering.  In my image of the divine, God is slow to anger, and steadfast in love.  God is infinitely forgiving.  God’s mercy “endures forever.”

So what do I make of the transactional flavor of the beatitude?  I think it is a misreading.  In truth there is no “if, then” in the beatitude.  It simply says that merciful people receive mercy.  There is no sequence or order to this statement.  It could just as easily be written, “Blessed are those who receive mercy, for they are merciful.” In truth, mercy given and mercy received are two sides of the same coin; there is not one without the other, they are simultaneous, not sequenced.

Put another way, there is a natural flow in both directions between receiving and giving mercy.  In the act of mercy, goodness flows in all directions, including back to us, even inwardly.  It’s like a positive feedback loop.  And it is grounded in our experience of God’s mercy toward us.  In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare has Portia saying, “It (mercy) is twice blessed: It blesses him that gives and him that takes.”  It is this double blessing I think the beatitude is describing.

In one direction, to the extent that we experience the mercy of others or of God, we are freed up (as Newell pointed to in his rendering), motivated, and become desiring of doing likewise to others.  In the other direction, to the extent that we are merciful to others, something in us opens up (is freed) to allow us to receive the mercy others provide, indeed to see the mercy always being given by God that we otherwise become blind to when we do not practice mercy ourselves.  We might say that mercy operates inwardly and outwardly at the same time: Our outer acts of mercy multiply the spiritual receptor cells within us that receive mercy, and our inner reception of mercy multiplies our desire and capacity to be merciful persons.

Seen negatively, if we are not merciful toward others, we (by that choice) become more distant from God and from our neighbor.  Not as a punishment, but as a natural consequence (just like we become more distant from our friends if we do not keep in touch with them).  If we withhold mercy, we close our hearts to its reception.  This is what is called “hard-hearted.”  Being merciful, on the other hand, because it is of the divine nature, brings us closer into alignment and relationship with God.  We become more capable of receiving what God wants to give.

When others are recipients of our mercy (or we, the mercy of others), what are the fruits that typically emerge?  They can be many and varied.  Certainly, the concrete help provided in some forms of mercy relieves suffering or reduces deprivations.  Forgiveness may be received leading to a restoration or healing of a relationship.  Mercy received engenders hope in the midst of despair.  And certainly, joy and gratitude are multiplied.  Most of all, the recipients of mercy come to feel seen, heard, helped, loved, and acknowledged as belonging.  And for those who are the merciful ones?  In addition to receiving mercy themselves, they know the joy, belongingness, and satisfaction of being an instrument of goodness multiplied.  And they become freer to multiply mercy in their actions toward others.

A Personal Story

I find that writing about mercy has helped me see that I have a long way to grow in this capacity for being merciful.  As a small example, I tend to judge others who do not follow social norms for considerate and respectful behavior.  I don’t cut them much slack.  It is an inner judgement; I seldom confront or act on it.  But it does distance me from them, even giving me a sense of moral superiority.  Even as I write this, I realize the poverty of this sense! 

What would it be like for me to recognize more consciously how often I am inconsiderate and disrespectful myself?  We often judge others for the very thing that we unconsciously harbor in ourselves!  To the extent I can do this — and I can be merciful in this way when I practice it — I find forgiveness within myself for my own failings and am freed from the annoyance I have with others that stems from my judgement.  Then I am more merciful and receive mercy at the same time. 

Pause and Reflect

o   How might you define mercy as you understand it?

o   In what ways, large or small, have you experienced mercy in your life, especially recently?  From whom? How?

o   Inwardly, how do you respond when mercy is offered to you?

o   In what ways have you been merciful to others in your actions toward them?  What inner shift, if any, did you experience when you did this?

o   When you reflect on whatever image you have of the divine mystery, how does mercy fit in with that image?

o   Do you sense a call to practice mercy in some new and freeing way?

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