Focus on acts of mercy in your life advises Offaly influencer

As I was on a reflective walk recently I thought of how a few years ago, as some of you might be aware, Pope Francis dedicated a full year to 'Mercy'. It made me start reflecting on mercy in my own life and in our beautiful but sometimes awful ugly world at present.

If our hearts are to be truly moved by mercy then we will necessarily desire to do something good and loving about it.  Each of us is called to change the world we inhabit in some way, and for most of us that means in acts of love.  We begin in our homes and with our families, and we extend those acts of love to our friends, work colleagues, and wider communities.

Mercy is the ready willingness to help anyone in need, or poor or vulnerable or homeless or those that have been abused or orphaned or abandoned and especially those in need of forgiveness, reconciliation, acceptance, care and love. The year of mercy was a call for all of us to become missionaries of mercy in a world where there is so much that needs healing and cries out for mercy and God's love. God is love and mercy and kindness, and that kindness and gentleness should be the mark of God’s people.  As Psalm 136 tells us over and over again, 26 times, God’s steadfast love, God’s faithfulness, God’s mercy endures and endures for ever. 

Do you want to do amazing acts of love and things in this world?  Do you sometimes have grandiose ideas and dreams?  Sometimes we have more secular dreams of wealth and fame, and sometimes we may have dreams of doing extraordinary things for God.  But these do not have to be dreams because each and every one of us is called to extraordinary things.  The problem is that we often misunderstand what “extraordinary” is all about.  So what is it about?  It’s especially about doing small things with extraordinary love.  Every one of us can do this every day all day.  Our lives are filled with opportunities to do “acts of love.”   It may be cooking or cleaning, shuttling kids here or there, caring for the yard, completing tasks at work, or daily casual conversation with others. 

Every one of these tasks offers us an opportunity to love with extraordinary love.  And if you do every small act with great love, then your love will be great and God will do extraordinary things through your life, bestowing His Mercy on many. But also in the past year or so there have been millions of people and children displaced by war and also thousands of people and children risking their lives trying to get somewhere outside of their country or predicament to find a safe place to live. This is a situation in need of the mercy and welcome that we can also show. We have also witnessed and become more aware that even our beautiful planet earth is itself in danger.

The poorest and especially those living in ever increasing drought ridden and famine ridden climates are suffering most because of the climate change caused in no small part by those of us living in the so called developed world due to greed and the selfish over use of energy and resources. By being more loving and more caring about how we use our energy and our resources we can act with mercy and greater care for our beautiful world and lessen the effect climate change has on the poorest living or trying to live in our world and especially in our country.

I can see from my travels around Ireland and indeed around the world to the many parts my work brings me too and I am actually writing this thought for the week from Ethiopia is that the gap between the rich and poor is growing even greater. In Ireland for example this has been marked by an increase in homelessness and poverty. We can and must show mercy by supporting organisations that help our poor and our homeless. Our actions, our willingness to pardon and forgive, the help, care and support we give to family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and strangers are acts of wonderful mercy that help to make our world a better caring and more loving and more just planet.

A lot done as was said before but a lot more to do, indeed much more needs to be done if we are to make our world a better place to live in for the many who suffer from poverty, homelessnes, war, famine, drought, abuse of all kinds and abandonment and in a lot of cases suffer in silence or without a voice to speak out for them on a daily basis because of the greed of the few.

 
Love from your heart
Responding to mercy is different for each of us, because we all have different gifts and calls.  But the main ingredient of mercy is a call to relationship with  God and with everyone we meet, which is essential if we intend for our homes, our city, our country and our world to be transformed by and through love, care and mercy.  And relationships include real encounters with the people that have been placed in our lives, which means that we must be intentionally good, caring and loving every day in the way we interact with everyone we meet.

Love through mercy is activated through our relationship with God and through human interactions, including touch, eye contact, and a heart that is present to simply be with someone who is deeply suffering.  In turn, love leads us to act, heal, forgive, care and encourage.

The world is healed through our hands, our hearts, our prayers, our forgiveness and through our actions. It’s easy to convince ourselves that one conversation, one prayer, one hug, one lighted candle or one smile does not matter much in the grand scheme of things or that it is just a drop in the ocean, but let me tell you many drops make an ocean and many lights can be lighted from the giving of your light. The truth is that our call is to love from our hearts, every day, in ways both visible and invisible. When we love from our hearts, we begin by listening to God, then we reach out to our family members and loved ones which in turn engages them to love others by encountering love through us.  We

Thought for the week

As your thought for the week, remember what Saint Mother Teresa said, "do small things with great love” and that will change the world. Finally,  say this beautiful prayer of mercy which has become a favourite of mine these past few  years and which goes as follows, "Lord, I give to You, this day, every small act I perform.  Help me to find value and meaning in even the smallest service.  I pray that my love for You will increase in countless small ways so that I may be a holy instrument of Your abundant Mercy.  Jesus, I trust in You. Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I will never be suspicious or judge by appearances, but always look for what is beautiful in my neighbours’ souls and be of help to them; that my ears maybe merciful, so that I will be attentive to my neighbours’ needs, and not indifferent to their pains, abuses and complaints; that my tongue may be merciful, so that I will never speak badly of others, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all; that my hands may be merciful and full of good deeds; that my feet may be merciful, so that I will hasten to help my neighbour, despite my own fatigue and weariness; that my heart may be merciful, so that I myself will share in all the sufferings and abuses of my neighbour but will stand up and speak out and fight for their right to justice and peace. As you have been fed, go to feed the hungry. As you have been set free, go to set free those imprisoned by guilt and sin, brokenness and pain. As you have been received – give. As you have heard – proclaim. Help me always to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with you God.  And may the blessing which you have received from the Creator be always with you. Amen."