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Friends!
Let’s talk MERCY! Especially after that rousing homily I gave last Sunday on confession :-)!
To me, my whole existence, every breath, every heartbeat, every thought is an act of God‘s mercy! I do not deserve one iota of life, and yet God gives me life to the overflowing forever.
You know I love etymologies and so here we go. In Hebrew, the word for mercy is rahamim and it is associated with the part of the body but whereas Latin locates mercy in the heart (misericordia). But the Greek is pretty cool and I want to talk about it. It images entrails and its base meaning is “womb.” Think about a baby in the womb – the power to create another life, the intimacy of the child in the mother’s womb sharing the very same life of its mother, the sacrifice of the mother for the child! Wowzers! This “womb”imagery for mercy is awesome!
This imagery enriches our theology and prayer by inviting us to compare God’s mercy to the care that children receive in their mother‘s womb. When we reflect on Divine Mercy, we can imagine ourselves being eveloped by God‘s maternal love and it is good to have this maternal image as most images of God in the Scriptures are masculine. This is not an abstract notion, but an incarnational love that brings forth life. It calls to mind our total dependence on God and the promise that God will provide for our needs. Unborn children cannot know, let alone express, their needs to their mother; they simply receive their care their mother knows to provide. So also, we entrust ourselves to God‘s loving care to meet the needs we may not even know or be able to express.
I’d like to end with this thought. What God wants from you far above anything else, more than all your sacrifices and works for the Lord, is to believe He loves you! And will provide for your every need- today, tomorrow and for eternity!
You are forever held in MERCY!
+Fr John Amsberry
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