Affording mercy
Comfort, comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…
There is a beautiful saying of Venerable Catherine McAuley, foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, that goes:
“There are things the poor prize more highly than gold, tho’ they cost the donor nothing; among these are the kind word, the gentle, compassionate look and the patient hearing of their sorrows.”
Today’s readings give us an insight into the God who inspired these words of Mother Catherine — a God who desires to comfort His people, who instructs His prophet to speak tenderly to a people who have suffered. What bespeaks even more God’s compassion is that He does not direct His words of comfort only to a “just” people, to innocent victims of tragedy or injustice. Rather, God speaks comfort to those who have suffered because of their own sin: “Comfort my people… proclaim to her… that her guilt is expiated.”
“It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” There can be a temptation to pass judgment on the poor — particularly on those whose mistakes and poor choices have contributed to their difficult circumstances. But it is these “little ones” that most need our kind words, compassionate looks and listening ears. Those sheep who have wandered from the Lord and found themselves lost and miserable are precisely those most in need of comfort and mercy.
Our Catholic Charities agencies should unfailingly be places of comfort. We will never be able to meet all our clients’ temporal needs for comfort due to the limited, finite nature of “gold” — of donations, food stuffs and grant funds. But ultimately, what brings the poor the greatest comfort, what they prize most highly, is not “gold” but mercy — and we can always afford mercy.
Sister Marie Josepha Kluczny, RSM is a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, and the executive director of Catholic Charities of Southwest Louisiana.