Page 5 - Salesian Bulletin 2016 [01] January-March

justice is the best way forward, brilliantly contrasting the merits of justice and mercy she says:
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
were the oppressors of his people. He was so horrified and depressed by God’s mercy that he said: “And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jon 4:3) The scripture scholar Wilfred Harrington commenting on the story says: “Jonah represents a predictable human reaction to divine generosity. If God is gracious to me – fine. [But!] He dare not be gracious to those whom we have judged to be undeserving of his mercy.” Jonah is alive and well and living within us.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest...
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’ s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
Between those two stories Jesus came along and the Gospels portray him as the friend of sinners. He eats with the tax-collectors and other ‘sinners’ who were shunned and marginalised by the righteous. This was how the divine physician worked, including the excluded and healing the spirit of those oppressed
beyond us. He told us: to judge not and we will not be judged; to be as merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful; to forgive our enemies; to stop counting the number of times we forgive and to forgive seventy times seven.
Her pleas fell on deaf ears and Shylock demanded his pound of flesh. But his ‘letter of the law’ approach was thwarted by the very wording he relied on. While the words had specified a ‘pound of flesh’ there was no mention of blood. He could not draw one drop of blood. It then became impossible for him to take his pound of flesh and he forfeited everything.
internally or
story is a litany of mercy giving. Nobody is excluded except those who don’t want to receive it or who think they don’t need it. But the offer is unconditional and is never withdrawn. Those who favoured justice could not understand and were ‘scandalised’ and plotted his downfall.
Jesus’ most astounding act of mercy is when he is on the cross – he doesn't lift a finger to condemn or do harm to those who crucified him. It is an amazing act of chosen powerlessness. He could have done otherwise. But his response was: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Many centuries before Shakespeare the author of the story of Jonah in the Old Testament had highlighted the same tendency within the human heart to come down on the side of strict justice rather than mercy. In the story it is beyond Jonah’s understanding that God would, once they had repented, forgive those who
But Jesus did not see himself as a ‘once-off’ agent of mercy. He asked all his followers to follow his example. Jesus is the Master at challenging the inclinations of the human heart. Tendencies we too often deny or are simply not aware of, he brings starkly into the light. He asksustodowhatwedeemtobe
As if with air.” The author
externally . The
Gospel
The poet Gerald Manly Hopkins puts it all so beautifully:
“I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
Fr John Horan is at Salesian House, Milford Grange, Castletroy, Limerick.
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