The Joy of Christlike Mercy ~ by Kristin
“Natural” happiness needs no explanation. It basically involves freedom from suffering and abundance in the good things of creation. In a world where God permits suffering for our good, natural happiness will at times fail us. The more important point though, is that we're made for a greater happiness. Our hearts want “more.”
Faith makes possible a new kind of happiness: Christlike happiness.
What does Christ delight in? There are many facets to Christlike happiness, and of course we speak of the ineffable. I would like to meditate here on His mercy. Christ is merciful and delights in rejuvenating our lives through His mercy.
Mercy presupposes sin, failure, and disappointment. Mercy is the balm applied to the wound. Mercy sees the good on the other side of the trial. Mercy is willing to suffer and patiently wait things out. Mercy trust in the goodness of God's mysterious plans. Mercy has a bad memory for what is inconsequential and lives in the abundance of the moment. Mercy knows when to just let go and let be. Mercy sees the foibles of human nature and prefers to laugh instead of cry. Mercy refuses to be paralyzed by fear or regret. Mercy is obstinate, focused, strong, and relentless. Mercy is always constructive. Mercy perseveres.
Described in this way, Christ's mercy is inseparable from His love. St. Paul said:
“Love is patient, love is kind...It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 (NABRE)
We are invited by Christ to see the world through His eyes, and to extend His merciful love to ourselves and others. Sin and ignorance ensure that we all stand in need of His mercy. Apart from His mercy, our lives and relationships are truly irredeemable. It takes many failures to begin to understand that Christ is the answer. Thankfully, God is patient.
We struggle and wrestle with God's mercy. In other words, He gently invites us to let go of this or that. The moment we turn to God in prayer, He comforts and guides us, one step at a time. Our joy and peace is limited only by what we are willing to receive. We can only abide in His mercy when we surrender our idols and allow Christ's merciful love to be our sole object. That's the hardest part. We all cling to a narrative, an idea of who we are, or how life should be. Christ invites us to let that go. Allowing Christ's sweet and gentle spirit to reign in us, is, mysteriously, perhaps the hardest thing we will ever do.
In a great paradox, when we surrender and allow Christ's merciful love to prevail in us, we return to our lives with renewed passion and joy. We find real connection. We begin to see God in everything. When we see ourselves, others, and creation through Christ's eyes, we apprehend their true beauty and purpose. A dimension of existence previously obscured to us, opens up. We finally see in color, (or super-color!) Of course, that newfound vision can develop and strengthen over time as we continually mature in Christ.
We've all experienced moments of peace and transcendence in our lives. These are moments when mercy has touched our hearts and the heavenly way of seeing has been opened up to us. This Easter Season, let's commit to allowing ever more of Christ's merciful love to define our existence.
In the words of scripture, let's hold every thought captive to Christ. And, in those moments when our hearts are weighed down and we feel cut off from that beautiful way of seeing and being, let us pause and let Christ in. Let us become bolder in calling out those thoughts, actions, and emotions that separate us from His mercy. Let us believe in the promises of scripture. Let us give Satan no entrance. Let us persevere in replacing everything contrary to Love, with Love.
This is a lovely post. Not unexpectedly, Kristin writes of Christian mercy in a much more poetic, even beautiful style than I employ. Very good points made and in a beautiful way. One important point she makes is that gaining a faith in Christ and his mercy is in the living. If we follow his teaching to be merciful, we feel the joy and we see Christ in the world and in the faces of those to whom we extent mercy. If we would like to challenge someone to consider Christ, the "battle" is much less over ideas and essentially around inviting someone to follow Jesus and live his laws and life with the promise that if they do, they will know if it is the right life for them.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, Jake shared an interesting video where the host answered a write in question regarding whether we had a responsibility to challenge gay people on the lifestyle choice, that is, as Christians would we have a responsibility to do so. I wouldn't say the guy had this doctrinally correct, but I liked the direction and point he was trying to make well enough to write it up in my journal.
I wrote this: Jake shared a clip from one of the podcast hosts he likes by the name of Andrew Klaven. In answer to a letter questioning whether we should refrain from telling gay people of the error of their ways, he started by quoting the sermon on the mount, that we should worry more about the plank in our own eye rather than dust in the other's eye, then told this anecdote. He claimed that following WWII people started to flee the communist controlled side of Berlin and that when they went to the British gate, they would be turned back because the more rule bound Brits would apologize but say that, as much as they would like to help they weren't allowed to let people enter the free sector unless they had the appropriate papers. However, they found that when they went to the American checkpoint the yanks, after saying that they couldn't let them in unless they had the right papers, etc. would then go on to say that they were going to walk to their barracks for a quick smoke and if, when they got back they weren't there anymore (they walked to the free side) there wasn't much they could do about it. Soon, there was a flood of refugees going to the American gate. Klaven went on to say that he felt we know so little about judgement and mercy and that combined with the fact that we are all guilty, so if any of us to get into heaven, we will need to do it through the American gate, where the gatekeeper is willing to look the other way!