I
don't know about you, but I have a difficult time comparing myself with others.
It could be as vain as comparing my looks or my talents with others - or it
could be a little deeper, like comparing myself with the amount of volunteer
work or generosity of others.
I think this
comparison game plagues many of us, and social media has only plagued us with
more blatant temptations for this.
I often think to
myself "I wish I had more energy so I could do X for more people."
"I wish I had more money so I could give X to this person" "I
wish I had more time so I could volunteer with Y."
This morning I had a
bit of an epiphany. It was like the Lord said "You have been given
everything you need to show mercy in the way I desire.”
For some of us - that
might mean a lot of activities - reaching many people, volunteering at a youth
group, going on a mission trip. For others it might simply mean loving your
husband and children by devoting your time, energy and love to them. Didn't
have a chance to get your second cousin a birthday gift? Didn't get a chance to
invite your pastor over for dinner? It's OK.
For me I get caught up
sometimes in discouragement from an inability to "do" things that I
think (very likely) were not something I was needing to do in the first place.
Surely - there are SO many ways we can get involved, we can bless people, we
can give of ourselves. But don't measure your mercy in the ability to fulfill
all of these things. Measure your Mercy in your faithfulness to love the people
that God has put right in front of you. That doesn't have to be grandiose
either. It could simply mean a smile, a listening ear, a hug.
It is even MORE
simple. Perhaps one of the deepest and fundamental calls is the call to show
mercy to ourselves. Sometimes showing ourselves mercy is the HARDEST person to
show mercy to. A wise priest at a retreat once said "We have to beg Christ
for the Mercy to love ourselves." That has really stuck with me over the
past decade. We need the mercy to love ourselves as Christ loves us - we are
the Father's beloved creation.
We will find the ways
He wants us to show mercy not by looking at what those around us are doing -
not even by looking at the unrealistic standards or protocols we have devised
for ourselves. We will only find these invitations by looking deeply into our
Savior's merciful eyes. It is there He will reveal to us the mercy that we need
to experience and the mercy that we need to share.
"Let Jesus look
at you. Place yourselves within the gaze of Jesus and welcome this gaze that
looks at you peacefully and calmly, that loves you and sees your deepest identity.
Jesus, who looks at us with hope and who, in looking at us, loves us, heals us,
ad purifies us....Let us take these moments to look at Jesus with faith and
most of all, to welcome his gaze and allow ourselves to be healed by it, to be
healed of all of our discouragements, all the ways in which we feel guilty, our
worries, maybe our shame. This gaze of Jesus can heal everything in us; it can
purify and renew everything in our hearts." Fr. Jacques Philippe, Real
Mercy.
Amen
