During mass on Good Friday, we sing a simple refrain quietly, meditatively repeating its few lines as we venerate the cross of Jesus Christ. Originally written by Jacques Berthier for the Taizé community near Cluny, Burgundy, both the tune and words are simple,
Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jacque Berthier
This refrain has become my go-to prayer. I often begin my prayers with this refrain and when I am feeling troubled, these words draw me into prayer, particularly if I am feeling troubled with questions about my worthiness, when I am troubled by something I did, or failed to do, said or failed to say. When all I can hear is a condemning, self-critical voice, these words provide the shift in my focus that opens my heart to receive God’s merciful love.
In a wonderful article on living in mercy, Elaine M. Prevallet, SL, describes God’s mercy,
When God’s love touches us in our neediness, the sorrow and suffering inherent in the human condition, we name it mercy.
“Living in Mercy”
Elaine M. Prvallet
Spiritual writer, John S. Mogabgab describes God’s mercy as the deepest quality of God’s love and fullest expression of God’s sovereignty. He writes,
Mercy is the deepest quality of God’s love, the most encompassing movement of God’s heart, the most stunningly unexpected evidence of God’s generosity, the most enduring commitment of God’s sovereignty.
Weavings Vol XV
John Mogabgab
Throughout the passion narrative in Luke, from the betrayal of Jesus to his death on the cross, Jesus continues to express God’s merciful love, a merciful love that has been central to his mission. Jesus’s ministry in Luke’s gospel centers around a salvation that seeks and finds the lost. The kingdom Jesus establishes welcomes sinners, tax collectors, the poor, the sick, and the oppressed. In Luke’s passion narrative, Jesus shows mercy even as he is dying on the cross.
One of the difficulties we have in understanding mercy is that we are afraid that too much mercy might indulge bad behavior, might allow bad behavior to continue. When Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son, it is the elder brother who has difficulty with the mercy the father shows to the younger brother. We are often like that elder brother; we question a mercy that would welcome back and even celebrate the return of one who has acted so badly. We might be willing to tolerate the return but certainly not to celebrate. Celebration might only encourage further bad behavior.
I wonder about this though. Take a minute to think of someone who has shown you merciful love. When you received that love, were you inclined to take advantage of it so that you could continue to act badly or was that love transformative? Did that merciful love soften your heart, help you to accept yourself more fully, and move you toward growth? Merciful love doesn’t ignore bad behavior. Instead, it sees the wholeness of the person and provides room for the person to grow.
I remember having a conversation with a nun I met at an academic conference. She told me that she was one of six children and one time she asked her mother which of her children she loved the most. The mother replied, “My favorite is always the one who needs me the most.” Motherly love responds to need and is drawn forth through weakness. The nun’s mother felt her love for her children most powerfully when her love was needed. I can relate to her experience because motherhood has taught me about merciful love. I know that I do not see my children the same way that everyone else does. My vision of them is formed and shaped by merciful love. I might notice a few of their shortcomings and weaknesses but they seem so minimal, so small, because I can only see them through the wide-angle view provided by merciful love. My hope is that as I grow older, I will increasingly be able to view all the people I meet through this wider lens of merciful love.
In his book on the Sabbath, Abraham Heschel tells the story of a rabbi who had a dream about heaven. In his dream, the rabbi was escorted to the great temple in heaven and could not wait to see the glory of paradise within this great temple. When he entered the doors of the temple all he saw was a table surrounded by great scholars (called Tannaim) who were studying the scriptures and holy books.
The disappointed rabbi wondered, “Is this all there is to Paradise?” But suddenly he heard a voice: “You are mistaken. The Tannaim are not in Paradise. Paradise is in the Tannaim.”
The Sabbath
Abraham Joshua Heschel
The Jewish scholars encountered the wideness of God’s mercy through their study of the scriptures and holy books and that encounter nourished their capacity to receive mercy to such an extent that they carried paradise within their hearts. This story teaches us that opening our hearts every day to the merciful love of God, allows paradise to shape our lives, to become available to us today. Prevallet writes,
Mercy makes our hearts spacious; it also mercies the space around us. Mercy becomes the space we live in.
“Living in Mercy”
Elaine M. Prevallet
Prayer and study of scripture are paths that open us up to God’s merciful love. When I pray, “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom,” I allow my narrow vision, my curved in vision, the vision that can only see my failings, my sin, and my disordered love to fall away. The prayer opens my heart to receive the wideness of God’s mercy and to live more fully from and for the heaven that is promised to all of us.
