Humility and Mercy

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                While reading the Gospel for this Sunday, I could not help but think of a friend of mine.  She made the dumb (brave) decision to pray for humility.  This is one prayer that the Lord always answers, and He answers it in ways we could not have imagined.

                For my friend, the Lord answered it by showing her what some of her friends and acquaintances say about her when she is not around.  Unfortunately, it was not things that build you up, rather it was pretty bleak.  Hearing that people you considered friends were talking poorly about you behind your back would deliver a big blow to anyone’s self-esteem.  My friend was no exception.

                Sunday’s Gospel shows us how to react to these situations.  Often times, our human instinct is to retaliate or get the person who wronged us back.  However, Jesus shows us a different way.  In St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tell us to, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (6:27-28).  Anytime I hear Jesus speak like this, I always think, “That is not what I want to do.”  It is hard to love those who have wronged you, but that is precisely what Jesus showed us with His life, death, and resurrection.  It is what He is calling each of us to do.

                When my friend prayed for humility, God did not show her what her friends were saying to hurt her.  God revealed those things, so that she might grow in holiness and humility by practicing what Jesus is saying in the Gospel.  True humility comes from heading the words of Jesus and mimicking His actions.  It comes from going beyond being kind and merciful to our friends.  It comes from showing love, compassion, and mercy to those who have wronged us.  It’s not easy to do, but Jesus shows us the way.

                The Lord has been calling us to imitate his love and mercy for a long time.  We hear in the first reading about David sparing the life of his enemy.  David had snuck into his enemy’s camp and found his enemy, Saul, asleep and defenseless.  David’s own companion, Abishai, urges David to let him kill Saul.  Instead, David prevents that from happening and shows Saul mercy by only taking his spear to disarm him.  David show mercy and love to his actual enemy who was trying to kill him.  He knew the Lord was calling him to mercy and would reward him for acting that way (cf 1 Sam. 26:2-23).

                Jesus did the same for you and me.  By being born into our world of sin and taking on our humanity, Jesus bore our sins on His holy shoulders when He died on the cross.  He did not wish any ill on his tormentors and executioners.  Every time we sin, we become those executioners and are driving those nails into Jesus’ hands and feet.  We become the ones who persecute Him and put Him to death.  Yet, Jesus willing bears all of that out of His unimaginable love for each of us.  He is showing us the love and mercy the Father has for us and calls us to do the same.

                It is not easy to “do good to those who hate” us (Luke 6:27).  It goes against every instinct we have.  Just as my friend is learning to humble herself and show love and mercy to the people that spoke poorly of her, each of us is also called to humble ourselves and treat the people who hurt us with love, compassion, and respect.  We are called to rise above pettiness, anger, and sorrow.  Jesus tells us that if we do this, our “reward will be great and [we] will be children of the Most High” (Luke 6:35).  While my friend prayed for humility and is learning to love those who hurt her the hard way, you do not have to wait for some revelation to practice humility and love your enemies.  To do this, we each must first acknowledge that Jesus Christ has borne our transgressions and loved each of us anyway.  Then, we can unite our pain to His and be merciful to those who hurt us, “just as [our] Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

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