CHARITY AS MERCIFUL LOVE
Fr. FAUSTO GOMEZ OP
Christian holiness is the perfection of charity, which is the virtue and the form of all virtues. Spiritual life, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, consist of this: The pure and simple perfection of spiritual life is that of charity…Without charity one is nothing spiritually (On the Perfection of the Spiritual Life). Hence, the degree of charity in our life marks the degree of perfection of the beginners, of the advanced and of the perfect. The beginners of the journey fight against sin and sins; the advanced, practice virtues, above all, love; the perfect live immersed in the loving contemplation of God, One and Triune.
Love of neighbor represents one side of love. The other – and a more fundamental side – is love of God. Both are one love. They fertilize each other. When one grows, the other grows, too. I love the Circle of Love of St. Dorotheus de Gaza (6th Century). The world is a circle – like a wheel -. and in the center of the circle is God. The rays that go to the center represent the different ways men and women live their lives, far from or close to God and neighbor. The closer one is to God, the closer he or she is to the neighbor; and, vice-versa: the closer one is to the neighbor, the closer he or she is to God (cf. Spiritual Instructions).
In the excellent Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata (1996), St. John Paul II speaks of three characteristics of consecrated life; really, of Christian life: first, Confessio Trinitatis (Confession of the Trinity); second, Signum Fraternitatis (Sign of Fraternity), and third, Servitium Caritatirs (Service of Charity). He puts it beautifully in his Ecclesia in Asia: “Search for God, a life of fraternal communion, and service to others are the three chief characteristics of consecrated life, which can offer an appealing Christian testimony to the peoples of Asia today.” Truly, these three qualities are qualities of true Christian life, of the life of every Christian.
Charity is merciful charity. On a Friday afternoon Linus tells his friend Charlie Brown of the wonderful Peanut Family: “Have a happy week-end.” The round-headed boy, the kind master of Snoopy answers him: “Thank you,” and in pensive mood asks Linus, the kid with the security blanket: “Incidentally, what is happiness?” “Incidentally, what is mercy?”
Mercy is “man’s compassionate heart for another’s unhappiness” (STh, II-II, 30, 1). Mercy can be a mere emotion or passion of the sense appetite, or a virtue of the intellectual appetite, the will. If compassion is just a passion of the senses when facing the misery of another, then it is not a virtue but a passion or feeling or emotion that does nothing to alleviate the suffering of the neighbour. If it is not just a natural instinct in front of suffering but a conscious and free movement of the will guided by reason, aroused by the suffering of another person and leading to do something positive about that suffering, then it is the virtue of mercy: affective and effective mercy.
The virtue of mercy is deeply connected with the virtue of charity which is love of God and neighbor, the virtue above all others (CCC, 25), their mother and coordinator. Mercy, John Paul tells us, has “the interior form” of the love called agape (Dives in Misericordia, DM, 6). A gift from God, charity is joyful, peaceful and merciful. Mercy is a “fruit” of charity (Gal 5:22-23), an internal effect of charity as love of neighbor in need.
Mercy or compassion is an important ethical value not only for Christians but also for Buddhists, Muslims and for philosophers like Cicero, Confucius, and Albert Camus. Among all the virtues related to the neighbor, mercy is the highest virtue (St. Thomas Aquinas). I read on the blue T-shirt wore by one of my students: “Mercy starts with me.” Properly speaking, mercy is towards others, although we may also say that mercy – as charity – starts with me but does not end there! Mercy is compassion over the misery of another, compassio miseriae alterius (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh, II-II, 30, 1 ad 2). For Christians, “mercy is the essence of the Gospel and the key to Christian life” (Walter Kasper, Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life)). Mercy includes not only material but also spiritual mercy, which is focused on forgiving others their offenses and praying for them.
The human virtue of mercy may be acquired through repetition of compassionate acts of love - of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. (By the way, mercy and compassion are used interchangeably and mean generally the same. For instance, in the Miserere: “Have mercy on my, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offence” – Ps 51:1; Ps 86:15). The Fathers of the Church speak of divine mercy – forgiveness - and human mercy –helping the needy. Mercy is usually described today as “an emotion that leads us to piety, understanding and forgiving others their offenses.” Pope Francis tells us that mercy and compassion mean substantially the same. He adds: we may say mercy refers more to divine forgiveness, while compassion to human sympathy with the needy).
Mercy with the needy (misericordia), compassion (cum passione) or sympathy, that is passion for the suffering’s others, is opposed to apathy and antipathy. Apathy is indifference to the sufferings of others. Antipathy is an attitude of dislike if not condemnation of some others, like the poor, the uneducated, the refugees, the migrants, women, the elderly, and children. Empathy, moreover, is wider than compassion, for it places the empathetic in the shoes of the others - not only of those who are needy (compassion), but also of those who are happy (see Rom 12:15). Harper Lee, considered the apostle of empathy by Michel Gerson, in her acclaimed novel To Kill a Mockingbird, says through Atticus: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
True compassion then entails being moved by the neighbor’s suffering and doing something good about it, while false compassion, or pseudo-mercy, or mercy killing is ending our neighbor’s life - be an unborn child through abortion, or a terminally ill patient or a dependent elderly through euthanasia and assisted suicide. St. John Paul II writes, “True compassion leads to sharing another’s pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.” To be in the place of the other is to be close to the victims of poverty, injustice, and violence.
Are we obliged to do something for all the needy we meet on our daily journey of life? No one can help all persons in need and therefore we are not obliged. However, as St. Thomas Aquinas points out, we are obliged to help one who is in urgent need.
And to close. St. Faustina speaks of three degrees of mercy: the first is the act of mercy itself; the second is the word of mercy, and the third, prayer. She writes, “If I cannot show mercy by my deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer.” True prayer leads us necessarily to the practice of the works of mercy, including the last spiritual work: praying for the living and the dead. (FGB)