Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7

Mercy is unearned grace.  We do not deserve it, but we gladly receive it – freely.  My mother tried to instill this into me.  Dad would agree with that.  However, Mom was with us all the time and her teaching meant a lot to me.

She tried to teach us not to exact revenge or as we used to say, “Fight back.”  No.  She warned us of that often.  Not that we always obeyed, but we knew that we were acting badly when we stand up for what we thought were our rights and were prepared to go to war to defend ourselves. There is something in human nature that wants to fight.

After I gave my heart and life to Jesus as a young man, I began to understand what Jesus was talking, and to my amazement, I found myself blessing the merciful as I tried to be merciful myself.

Jesus told us the way.  It is the way so clearly set forth in the Gospels.  “Be full of mercy in relating to others.”   Growing up we thought people like this were wimps.   In school I saw kids putting others down.  It looked “manly” to stand up and fight!  The idea of showing mercy sounded like bad advice.

But Jesus made it clear, show mercy, never harbor ill feelings, and let it in the hands of God. That sounds so out of touch with human reality.  But, according to Jesus, that is the way of all saints, as he himself showed the way.