I desire mercy

Some people are hard to take.  There are two things I try to remember when dealing with such people:  1)  There are some people who find me hard to take, and 2)  I don’t know the struggles and battles each one is going through.

But that isn’t always enough. 

So how would Jesus have us respond to such people?  Sunday’s Gospel lesson (click here to read it) tells us of Jesus being criticized for socializing with “tax collectors and sinners.”

Responding to the critics, Jesus referred them to the words of Hosea (Hosea 6:6, click here to read it), “I desire mercy (or ‘steadfast love’), not sacrifice.”  Their love, Hosea tells them, vanishes like a morning cloud, and as the day wears on, they fall to simply satisfying ritual requirements, not actually practicing the love God asks of us.  God asks of us love, not religious practice, no matter how beautiful or high minded.

Love, of course, is not warm feelings but a chosen action, but that is what God asks of us, and what Jesus challenged his critics to do.  Love can be hard.  Some people are pretty hard to love.  That doesn’t change the call.

Love means to be committed to what is best for the other, be that a tender touch, a kind word or a stinging rebuke.  The real difficulty is to be able to deliver all those responses from a place of real, sacrificial love for the other.

This column appeared in the June 11, 2021 edition of St. John’s eNews. Click here for the complete issue.

If you are reading this at a different time, you may click here for the current eNews.