Blessed are...

Weakness and Strength

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Matthew 5:7

If you compare today’s testosterone fuelled action movies with those of yesteryear, a number of differences emerge. Today’s hero is often flawed, almost an anti-hero. There may be much about him to admire, but there is usually something to fear. The heroine wears fewer clothes than in a previous generation, and is encumbered by fewer moral laws. She is not haunted by failure; she probably rejects the very idea of sin. One other thing: modern movies have no place for mercy. The hero corners his victim then does not stay his hand. The square-jawed, solid citizen in black and white placed his gun back in its holster and walked away, not wanting to be judged no better than the one he had caught. Today, the haunted hero shoots, and with colorful curses condemns his opponent to an early grave. Mercy is weakness.

Is it? It is not weak to act upon compassion. It is not weak to suppress anger or the desire for revenge. It is not weak to insist upon universally applicable moral absolutes, while all around you the anarchy of postmodernism is descending into chaos. It is weak to act upon one’s animal instincts, without making an attempt to judge them. It is weak to act as others act, simply in order to fit in with the crowd. It is weak to accept, unthinkingly, the prejudices of others, without bringing them before the bar of reason, or the wisdom of revelation.

Mercy is the act, not of the weak but of the strong. Compassion is not restricted to those with bleeding hearts; it is the responsibility of all those who have received mercy at the hands of our Covenant God.



Father,
In Your mercy You drew me from the path of destruction,
setting my feet upon the way that led to recovery and restoration.
It was not weakness that moved You, but the power of love.
May my love reflect Yours, reaching out in compassion and mercy.
Through Christ my Lord.
Amen.