THOUGHT for the week

The church today needs to be more obviously a place of mercy and hope.

Mercy is a constant and reinforced teaching in the Gospel. ‘Blessed are the merciful, they shall have mercy shown them’; ‘The merciful need have no fear of judgement; the amount you measure out is the amount you receive.’

Holiness is not about making ourselves be, feel or appear good; holiness, rather, is about becoming more merciful.

Oh the tyranny of our expectations! (Delusions may be a better word!) Observe how dependent we can become on the acceptance and approval of others for our peace and emotional equilibrium.

The most destructive force in the world is human judgement. It destroys people’s dignity. And so we spend so much energy pretending to the world, presenting a façade, and the effort only brings tension and anxiety, and probably also a form of anger.

Freedom and peace come when we allow ourselves to be who we truly are – imperfect, flawed; when we acknowledge and live the contradictions of our life.

Freedom comes when we cease our futile efforts at justifying ourselves; when we gently remove our defences. In surrender, leave all judgement to the merciful God; at that point no human judgement can harm us.

An inspiring thought from the mystic, Thomas Merton: ‘I am thrown into contradiction: to realise it is mercy, to accept it is love, to help others do the same is compassion.’

It is only in the experience of helplessness that we come to experience the special and unique love of God for each of us. We can then direct our efforts to just being the person whom the all-merciful God loves.

The spontaneous reaction is always compassion for others.

Truly, the merciful are the ones who have accepted mercy, and are holy. Father James MacNeil, St Columba’s Cathedral, Oban.