Mercy, not Sacrifice

WORD 2day: Friday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 2, 2021: Genesis 23:1-4,19, 24:1-8, 62-67; Matthew 9: 9-13.

 

Mercy not Sacrifice! Mercy and Sacrifice actually stood for two paradigms that were in confrontation as a result of Jesus' life and teaching. God and one's relationship to God was explained purely in terms of sacrifice, sacrifice which stood for fulfilment of the requirements based on regulations and customs. The challenge is alive even today - that we do not make our spirituality a sacrifice-based spirituality. Fulfilment of the precepts, keeping the commandments, making vows and carrying out the same, offering suffrages and being faithful to our prayers to be 'said' or 'done'. 

Mercy, instead is fundamentally a relationship. I remember our Scripture professor explaining the meaning of the hebrew word for mercy - rahamim (or rachamim) which comes from the root, rehem (or rechem) which means "womb". Biblically, as Jesus uses, mercy thus refers to a compassion one feels to a child in the womb or a bond very intimate that arouses a warm feeling towards the other! 

Far from, doing something to help the other or giving something to someone in need, Mercy is to feel one with the other, specially with someone who is really in need. That is why the statement of Jesus that follows, I have come not to call the righteous but the sinners - a feeling one with the needy! 

When we really feel one with somone in trouble, or difficulty, or temptation, or a struggle, much before branding that person a 'sinner' or a 'weakling' or a 'traitor' or an 'infidel', we would strive to stay close to him or her, find out what actually is going on and share moments of solidarity that would walk that person right out of that situation. That is what Jesus did and that is what he expects of you and me: mercy, and not sacrifice!