St. James in his New Testament Letter offers us a compelling reason to practice mercy:
This is the Reading from the Morning Prayer in today’s Liturgy of the Hours:
James 2:13: “For the judgment is merciless to one who has not shown mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”
“Mercy” can be directly related to practicing forgiveness, and this is connected to the Lord’s Prayer verse in which Jesus essentially connects your desire for God’s forgiveness with you forgiving others:
Matthew 6:14-15: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
You show mercy to others and it will be shown to you.
Forgiveness does not mean, at least to me, reconciliation with the person or people who have offended or hurt you. It may mean cutting the emotional ties and resentment over the deed they have done. You may pray for them and offer up sufferings for their salvation, but reconciliation may be too much to handle and cope with.
All Scripture passages courtesy of: USCCB.
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I'm becoming more and more convinced of the importance of practicing mercy in everyday life. Even when forgiveness may not be applicable, judgement is most often, not appropriate, and yet we do it. It often becomes a knee jerk reaction and we don't realize who we may have offended by our self righteousness. The older I get, the more I realize how necessary mercy is.
Same, here Dymphna. The knee-jerk reaction is hard to stop.
Forgiveness and mercy are certainly not always easy. And I think too many of us forget to forgive ourselves.
ACM: I know, that's why I added the paragraph at the end about reconciliation is not always an option. Forgiveness and mercy is hard, either towards others or ourselves.