Modeling mercy

A Reflection for Monday of the Second Week of Lent

Find today’s readings here.

A wise friend once observed that our prayers sometimes boil down to: “Justice for thee, but mercy for me.” Today’s readings give more insight into this little pearl. The prophet Daniel confesses in detail the shame, sin and treachery of his people. Then he begs for God’s mercy rather than God’s justice. If we’re smart, we would take a lesson from Daniel’s successful journey to deliverance: We don’t dare to pray for justice for ourselves, because we are sinners in need of God’s mercy.

“Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins,” prays today’s responsorial psalm. If we’re honest, this should be our heartfelt prayer. It’s so easy for us to note the shortcomings and the failures to love in others, and in our righteousness we want to see them judged (and punished) accordingly. We might even like to see them “doomed to death,” as the psalm says. When we detect those same shortcomings and failures to love in the mirror, however, we devoutly hope that God will give us a second chance, praying that God’s “compassion quickly come to us.” 

When Jesus tells us to be merciful just like our Father, he’s reminding us to strive always to be less judgmental and more forgiving towards others and towards ourselves. “Stop judging and you will not be judged,” Jesus says. “Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.” Which sounds more like, “Mercy for thee as well as for me.”

I try to remember the words of Jesus when I am ready to cuss out another driver for doing something thoughtless on the road. I take a beat to think of the times when I’ve done something thoughtless on the road, but expected understanding from the driver who is mad at me: If that guy only knew what kind of day I’ve had, he’d be nicer, I’ve thought. My instant road rage is judgment. My moment taken to give the other person the grace I’d like to be given is mercy. 

“Mercy, mercy me / Oh, things ain’t what they used to be,” sang Marvin Gaye back in the 1970s. The song makes me reflect on the way aging can lead to ever more awareness of the flux and flow of life. Things are always changing—we are always changing—but we eventually come to the wisdom that the one constant we can cling to is God’s loving mercy. God is always modeling mercy. We just need to keep practicing.