mercy.

When Jesus says blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy, he assumes that you really can't be merciful until you've received mercy in the first place. Mercy is not a deal, but an ongoing lifestyle. We receive mercy then we show mercy and as a result we receive more mercy, and as a result, we then show more mercy—and on and on.

 It's like we're rolling a snowball downhill. We start with a small one, maybe the size of a baseball. As we toss it down the hill, immediately gravity starts to pull it farther downhill. As it rolls over, of course, it collects more snow. Now it's bigger and heavier, and so gravity pulls it even harder. It rolls over even faster, and collects more snow, and gets heavier, and rolls faster. And so on. Before you know it, it's a huge ball, bounding down the hill. That's how it is with mercy: The more we receive mercy, the more we give mercy.

Because we get distracted and have long bouts with selfishness, we collect sticks and branches in our little ball, and that slows us down. Sometimes we come to a complete halt, stuck halfway down the mountain. So we find ourselves remembering that we didn't deserve to roll as far as we had in the first place, and that without God's mercy, we'll go no farther. And that's when God comes along, trims off the branches sticking out from us, and gives us that little push to start us rolling downhill again, so that we can practice and enjoy mercy upon mercy upon mercy upon mercy.

 

the Beatitudes (Mathew 5:1-10)