Mercy During Lent

“Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned”. This is the refrain of the responsorial psalm sang in every Catholic church in the world on Ash Wednesday of 2015. Mercy, mercy, be merciful. In this beautiful psalm we continuously ask God to show us His mercy, but should we not also show mercy on Earth towards our fellow men and women?

When I walked out of the church doors on Ash Wednesday, I felt truly blessed by this mercy that we had so fervently asked for. But I was almost immediately struck by something; the homeless men and women waiting outside the church doors to implore the parishioners for spare change. I was not struck by their presence; I am a St. Louis native and this is not the first time I’ve seen this happen. However, what I was struck by was the lack of mercy by my fellow men and women, directly after such an inspiring service grounded on the concept of mercy. Please don’t misunderstand, however; I am not meaning to chastise my congregation for their personal shortcomings or opinions on the homeless. Rather, I wish to again pose the question – should we not also be merciful, as God is merciful to us?

I do understand the issues people have with giving money directly to the homeless on the streets, and I also understand that the money given in charity does not always go towards the best of uses under such circumstances. But instead, for a moment let us try to imagine the kind of circumstances that God shows us His mercy in. He grants us His mercy despite our, at times, destitute, morally crooked circumstances. Are we not all flawed, homeless or not? And does God not show us mercy? And mercy without bounds, at that! If God’s love and mercy are limitless towards us as flawed human beings, should we not at least show this same mercy to one another?

To help us understand our own humanity and need for mercy, God actually became one of us just to show us this simple truth: everyone needs mercy. With mercy comes a helping hand, a few dollars, a warm hug, and ultimately, our own salvation. Were that homeless person you deny help to, Jesus Christ, would you not be on your knees begging to help Him? Jesus is Emmanuel, meaning “God with us”. Therefore, it would be beneficial to not only those we help, but also our own souls, if we were to fully realize the piece of God that is present within every person, especially the homeless among us. For it is said in Matthew that Jesus himself said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mat. 8:20).