SECTION 3: MISSION Chapter 1: The Divine Quality of Mercy
Please join in prayer:
Holy Spirit and Holy Mother, please teach us the height and length and depth of mercy.
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you do we send up our sighs; mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us; and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Does anyone wish to discuss anything from the previous chapter?
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Let’s continue with the references for this chapter.
Scripture: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another . . .” Letter to the Colossians 3:12
“Give thanks to the LORD, who is good, whose love endures forever.” Psalm 118:1
Church Documents: “It is the Father’s will that we should recognize Christ our brother in the persons of all men and women and love them with an effective love, in word and in deed. . . “ Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 1965
Marist Documents: “It may well be that our official business in this world is the work of mercy . . . within the realm of a mother who is most merciful. Mercy is our common and abiding ministry as well as our most important product: a disposition of the heart to share with all the people.” The Way With Marists, A Marist Family Manual, 1985, page 31 Published by the Marist Fathers, Boston Province
Are there any comments on these quotations?
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THIS CHAPTER INCLUDES:
The Mission is Mercy Divine Mercy Inclusiveness in Action: Our “Those People” List A Church after the Model of Mary
THE MISSION IS MERCY
The mission of the Society of Mary is to bring God to the world of our times.
Mission is a big concept. Jesus had a mission; Jesus founded the Church as an instrument of his mission; the Church has a mission; each one of us has a mission. We often handle big concepts by reducing them to specifics—to particular actions. Many Christians use the words “evangelization” and “ministry” when talking about the work done by Christians for the greater glory of God and the love of others. These are useful terms.
Yet, for Marists, there is more to mission than specific activities—more than works of evangelization and ministry that we fit into our schedules. Mission is more than a matter of evaluating particular people or situations one at a time and choosing whether or not to respond in each given moment.
Mission is lived every moment of our lives because the mission of Marists is mercy. The Marist quotation above says it best:
Mercy is our common and abiding ministry as well as our most important product: a disposition of the heart to share with all the people.
Marists bring God to this world (evangelization), and we care for those in need (ministry) through an ever-present inclination of our hearts that we call mercy. We might also say that mercy is our method.
If we are filled with the spirit of Mary, if we are of one mind and heart with Mary, then we allow mercy to happen. We remove obstacles that stand between God’s mercy and other people. We enable God’s mercy to touch others because we are totally docile instruments. We are raindrops that reflect the light of the sun. Furthermore, we don’t need to know if we are being used in this manner. We have so given ourselves to God that the divine mercy of God simply flows through us. Mercy becomes our automatic response in all situations.
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DIVINE MERCY
To say that Marists are to be instruments of divine mercy is to say that Marists are to be merciful as God is merciful. What characteristics of a mercy that is divine, or Godlike, can we identify?
Mercy endures foreverFirst of all, as the Psalm quoted above states, divine mercy endures forever. We can put the idea of unlimitedness or boundlessness or infinity into words but we cannot fully comprehend this characteristic of God. To believe in the unlimited mercy of God is difficult for many in our times. When people doubt the existence or the relevance of God, as we discussed in the last chapter, they also reject the gifts of love and mercy that God gives to every one of us. Marists are called upon to model, as best we can, this divine nature of God’s mercy in everything we do.
Inclusiveness In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds his listeners that God makes the sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. In other words, God does not play favorites. Good things including God’s love and mercy are given to all people, even those people we may think of as not deserving. It is not our job to determine who is or who is not deserving of any act of mercy at any time.
Jesus also preached against the idea that people suffer because they are bad. In Luke 13:4, Jesus states that the people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them were no more guilty of doing evil than everyone else who lived in the area. Marists never judge others by the sorrows or sufferings in their lives.
Before we discuss in more detail the idea of all-inclusiveness, does anyone have anything to share or question?
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INCLUSIVENESS IN ACTION—OUR “THOSE PEOPLE” LISTS
We all have a “those people” list. This is a list of the people about whom we have reservations or suspicions. We hesitate to give of ourselves to them. Or, we give a little and at the same time hold something of ourselves in reserve. Maybe we are afraid of these people. Maybe we feel they aren’t deserving. We do not feel as compassionate about their sufferings as we do about people we know and love.
We place people on our list for a variety of reasons: their personal characteristics (physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and so on); their personal history; educational or vocational achievements; race, creed, color, gender or age. We might have people on our list because of a past experience. We might also include people simply because we don’t know much about them or because we can’t understand their language and traditions. The possibilities are endless.
God, of course, does not have a “those people” list. Neither does Mary.
In order to be merciful as God is merciful, we must work mightily to eliminate our “those people” lists. Reaching this ideal may be the work of our lifetimes.
Who are the people on my “those people” list?
How do I get them off my list?
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A CHURCH AFTER THE MODEL OF MARY
This topic might seem, at first glance, to have nothing to do with the topic of mercy, but the idea of a Church in the model of Mary follows naturally from an understanding of mercy.
In The Age of Mary, Father Jan Snijders, S. M., reviews for us passages from Scripture that lead us to important considerations about the Church itself.
Stooping Down
A male-dominated society, run on masculine principles, cannot but neglect that other aspect of God that is so central tohis self-revelation. Isn’t it striking that, when God’s mercy is mentioned, so often female imagery takes over?
Does a mother forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget,I will never forget you (Is 49:15).
I led them with reins of kindness, with leading strings of love. I was like someone who lifts an infant close against his cheek, stooping down to him I gave him his food (Hos 11:4).
Enough for me to keep my soul tranquil and quiet, like a child in its mother’s arms, as content as a child that has been weaned (Ps 131:2).
And when Jesus wept for Jerusalem he could only put it this way: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often have I longed togather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you refused (Mt 23:37).
If God made us in his own image and likeness, and if He made us into men and women, then He himself must combine both dimensions. Jean-Claude Colin . . . did see that a Church sent to evangelize the modern world had to be a Church after the model of Mary, a Church that will also manifest “the female dimension of God.” (The Age of Mary, pages 68-70)
What speaks to you in these passages?
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Let’s explore these ideas further by reading “A Marian Church,” in A Certain Way, page 80.
Our concept of Church may be challenged in this article. Unless we have a rather broad definition of Church, we cannot understand the idea of a Church on the model of Mary.
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QUIET TIME
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Let’s review the invitations for the coming month.
Closing prayer:
St. Marcellin Champagnat, St. John-Marie Vianney, St. Peter Chanel, St.Peter Julian Eymard, and all other Marist saints, please pray for us that we come to live the Marist ideal of being instruments of divine mercy.
Thank you for being here.
The Pondering Page for Quiet Time
The Divine Quality of Mercy
“It may well be that our official business in this world is the work of Mercy.” The Way With Marists, A Marist Family Manual, 1985
Part of saying “Yes,” to God, is saying “Yes” to all those God created, no matter how different they seem to be, no matter what their relationship with God seems to be.
Record your reactions to these ideas.
INVITATIONS
Prayer:
St. Marcellin Champagnat, St. John-Marie Vianney, St. Peter Chanel, St. Peter Julian Eymard, and all other Marist saints, please pray for us that we come to live the Marist idealof being instruments of divine mercy.
Reading: In A Certain Way, read the short items on pages 80 and 81. These readings are about characteristics of a Marian Church.
Also, in A Certain Way, read the short items on pages 142 and 143, titled“Take the Opportunity,” Love is service,” and “God of the poor.”
Which words, phrases, and ideas speak to you in these passages?
Action: When we use the words “our mother the Church,” we place the Church in the role of a parent.
Our ideas and feelings about the Church as a parent will be affected by our experiences with our own human parents and with others, such as teachers, who have had authority over us.
Some of us have wonderful memories of our parents and teachers; others of us have painful memories. Parenting styles can vary enormously. Memories often include both good and bad times. Also, our understanding of our parents and our relationships with our parents change over time—as we mature, as we take on adult responsibilities, as our parents age.
Let’s think about the parenting styles we have experienced, as well as the parenting or teaching styles we have, in turn, passed on to others.
What image of the Church have others in authority taught us, and what image of the Church are we, as authority figures, teaching others through our behavior? Is it a merciful image?
Our Marist Ways . . . . . . include an understanding that the how (mercy) of being Marist is more important than the what (specific duties) of being Marist.
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