Mercy

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
16 May 2010

Fifty years ago when I was in secondary school we studied one of Shakespeare's plays each year from year nine. It was hard going sometimes but it was more worthwhile than studying advertisements.

I cannot be sure whether we started with Julius Caesar or the Merchant of Venice, but I remember the relentless figure of Shylock demanding his pound of flesh and this beautiful quotation about mercy.

"The quality of mercy . . . droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven . . . .

It is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes".

Christ's teaching "blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" is one of the most popular of the beatitudes, easy to understand and politically correct. We all like to be on the receiving end, but it can be demanding work to be regularly merciful to others.

Public opinion reflects this because it imposes strict limits to its shows of mercy. Those excluded include terrorists, rapists, traitors to their country, paedophiles. Opinion is divided on how much mercy should be shown to the boat people. Are they genuine refugees or queue jumpers, poor or well able to pay the people smugglers? Majority opinion in Australia has never supported the abolition of the death penalty for some crimes.

Whatever of public opinion, Christian teaching has regularly called us to seek God's mercy and be merciful to others, but not at the expense of justice and the common good.

Nearly all Catholics in Australia follow the Roman or Latin rite for the Eucharist (Mass) and we still pray the "Kyrie eleison", the ancient Greek words for "Lord have mercy" which survive in the Latin rite.

At that stage we are preparing to pray by asking forgiveness for our sins, and mercy is linked closely to forgiveness and justice.

Christ's parable of the prodigal son would be better entitled the parable of the merciful father, who welcomed back his wild younger son after dissipating his inheritance.

Did the father still have some regrets about the money wasted, still nurture some hurt from the earlier departure? Did he have to swallow his pride to set these feelings aside? All of these instincts or temptations were submerged by his unselfish love of his son. His warm welcome displayed his feelings and his actions confirmed his genuine mercy.

We should not turn off the mercy tap, because God will only show mercy to the merciful.