Hug Mercy and Compassion

In the book of Sirach we read, “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.”  Think for a moment to the last time you were really angry with someone.  It might have been months ago.  It might have been this morning. If it was some time ago, I bet we can recall the details of the situation like it happened this morning.  We can recall what the initial reason for our anger was.  We can remember exactly what somebody either did or said to make us angry.  We can remember our response.  We can remember how we felt.  We can remember probably how personally angry we felt.  We can remember what revenge we had planned for that person or persons who hurt us.  It all comes back to us so vividly in our mind’s eye. 

You see we have so much trouble letting go.  The reality is we may have forgiven a particular person or group of people for a particular action or series of actions, but forgetting is something entirely different.  Perhaps our forgiving and our ability to receive true forgiveness is merely shallow.  We so often see forgiveness as merely an opportunity to come to an agreement that we can move on from.

It reminds me of when I was a child.  I had a good friend named Billy.  We were indeed good friends, but as it is with most boys, from time to time we would get into some little fights.  One time we were wrestling in the neighborhood.  Billy wrestled me into the mud that was in front of a neighbor’s house.  The neighbor came out and broke up our fight.  He knew us, and besides trying to prevent us from messing up his yard, which he wanted to be the best despite its now rundown appearance, he didn’t want to see two good friends fighting each other.  After he broke up the fight, he invited us to both shake hands and apologize.  We both were harboring that anger, but for the sake of the neighbor, we shook hands and without looking each other in the eye, we said we were sorry.  But were we?  Probably not, but we wanted to move on. 

You see, our forgiveness and our willingness to accept that forgiveness is often very shallow.  And so we harbor that wrath and anger, and we perpetuate that sinfulness.  We remain in a viscous cycle of deep resentment and anger because perhaps we are only willing to forgive on the surface.  Jesus is calling us to a deeper forgiveness.  The man asks, “How many times must we forgive, seven times?”  Jesus says, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”  In other words, we must simply be about forgiveness.

For forgiveness at its least allows us to temporarily get past a situation, and forgiveness at its best can be transformative.  Being forgiven gives us the motivation to forgive others.

We have no greater example of how we need to forgive than the mercy and compassion of Jesus himself.  From the very cross, after being abandoned, betrayed, and having one his closest deny three times even knowing him, and then to be accused, tortured, and put on a cross to die, he forgives, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

We seem to want to hug anger and wrath.  Let us hug mercy and compassion.

-  The Servant