Mercy

Mercy is a concept I have been thinking a great deal about lately. I thought about it when I saw that the State of Arkansas was rushing hurriedly to execute convicted murderers because of some technicality where the drug they use to kill these people might no longer be available.

One of those to be executed had clearly been transformed during his time on Death Row and had understood the evil in his act and displayed contrition and empathy toward his victims. Yet, he was executed nonetheless. When we fail to show mercy, do we begin to acquire a moral culpability similar to those upon whom we exact our revenge?

I have also thought about mercy because this issue has intersected my daily existence. Yes, I understand that people deserve punishment for misdeeds, but I wonder if mercy and punishment might be conjoined twins--when one is nourished at the expense of the other, the entire body runs the risk of harm. When I look at the chaos and misery in the world, now and throughout history, somehow I feel our failures as a species have not come because of our inability to distribute punishment, but rather because we do not have the wisdom or the courage to give out mercy in those situations when it has the power to actually build and strengthen relationships between people. Consider the most evil people in the annals of human history: do we brand these people evil because they possessed mercy in excess?

As I sit and write, I realize that I almost never hear the word mercy spoken, nor do I ever hear discussions of how we can incorporate mercy into our daily lives or into the life of our communities. It is a failing of humanity, a reason for our planet's sad condition, and an indictment of how badly those who claim to follow faith traditions have lived up to the standards of mercy to which virtually all religions aspire. It is also no accident that the concept of mercy is completely absent from the rhetoric of our current leader and his followers--without mercy, moral leadership and a just society cannot occur.

I see absolutely no hope that an outbreak of mercy will overrun the planet any time soon. However, we are responsible for the few square kilometers each of us inhabit, and in our tiny spaces let us all consider how we might incorporate mercy into our daily lives and into the lives of others, because the capacity for mercy, as much as any trait humans possess, is the one capacity that defines us as transcendent beings, beyond the ordinary world.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.