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Mercy is the disposition born from the bowels to help the pain and suffering of the people around us. In fact, the word mercy in its Greek sense is to feel the pain of the other person in my guts, the suffering of the other person feels like their own and that is why it moves to solidarity and to the construction of a much better, more humane society , where higher values develop.
An easy mandate to fulfill
In the climactic book of the law, God states that he does not propose commands that are difficult to fulfill or that surpass human forces (Dt 30,11), but that what God wants "is right near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart "(Dt 30,14) so that it can be put into practice with ease.
The mandate is: love God and love your neighbor. No complications, no greater explanations, with the simplicity of the works that build people, bringing out the best of himself to share with others. No great laws or harsh penalties are needed for compliance to take place. It is in our human capacity to love, to help, to serve other people with the motivation to manifest, in that way, the love of God. It is very simple to make life a constant heaven, a human realization available to everyone.
Rescue the person in need
However, some people tend to complicate everything and extend precepts and traditions, making the fundamental mandate of love for God and neighbor complicate. That happened with the legists, Pharisees and teachers of Jewish law who argued with Jesus of Nazareth. The evangelist Luke narrates a discussion between those characters and the subject in question (Lc 10,25-37).
The discussion begins with knowing what to do to achieve eternal life and the answer leads to another question "who is my neighbor?", Which leads Jesus to narrate the parable known as "the good Samaritan", where two faithful men fulfilled of the law they see a man who has been assaulted by bandits, wounded, half dead and naked, they leave him so that he ends up dying on the way. The fundamentals of the law, which they know well, do not comply with it, because they leave their fellow Jew aside.
The situation is saved by a man born in Samaria, a nation that is treated with enmity towards the Jews. The Samaritan has mercy for the fallen and abandoned man, to perform actions on behalf of the wounded man, performing seven merciful actions that rescue people: (1) approached the man that others left aside, (2) sell the wounds (3) put oil and wine to disinfect the sores and seek healing, (4) he mounts him on his horse, becoming the servant or slave of the fallen, (5) takes him to an inn to have a house, (6) I take care of him all the night and (7) generously paid to continue serving the man until he was well recovered and used himself (Lk 10,34-35).
Perhaps in rural environments it is difficult to practice such a force of generosity, however in urban environments it is constant. People in the countryside often practice love and mercy with those who need it. It is not very complicated, because mercy is able to overcome traditional schemes to help others and manifest, in that way, the love of God. Like the Samaritan man, we can help others to move forward and discover their human side, expressed in solidarity and willingness to help different people in need.
Be neighbor to the other
The key to the breaking of personal schemes is in the question Jesus asks of the man of the law: "Who behaved as a neighbor?". That question breaks with the traditional concept of neighbor that points to the next. The direction changes, because it does not focus on "who is my neighbor?", But on who becomes neighbor for the needy.
My neighbor is me when I act with mercy towards people in need. I am the neighbor of others to the extent that I help others to move forward, to grow fully and to fend for themselves to be builders of a better society.
What is necessary to do and practice frequently is to rescue people. It is not complicated, it consists in manifesting God's love in the service of others, making mercy the force that helps to recover the best every human being.
You can do it!
So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and find the grace that will help us in the moment we need it the most.
Hebrews 4:16
But go and learn what it means: "What I ask of you is mercy and not sacrifice." Because I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.
Matthew 9:13
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love for us, gave us life with Christ, even when we were dead in sins. By grace you have been saved!
Ephesians 2: 4-5