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"BLESSED are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."
Matthew 5:7

AT FIRST GLANCE, such statements seem to suggest that the process of showing mercy begins with us. That, however, is not the case. It is God who is merciful and gracious, first of all … , and the people of God are who they are because they have received God's mercy. …
Richard B. Gardner, Matthew

THE TWO TERMS [grace and mercy] are frequently synonymous, but where there is a distinction between the two, it appears that grace is a loving response when love is undeserved, and mercy is a loving response prompted by the misery and helplessness of the one on whom the love is to be showered. Grace answers to the undeserving; mercy answers to the miserable.
D. A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount

ALL WHO STRIVE to root their lives in forgiveness seek to listen rather than to convince, to understand rather than to impose themselves.
Brother Roger of Taizé, Glimmers of Happiness

A CHRIST-LESS world is a callous world, and mercy was never a characteristic of pagan life.
William Barclay, The Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer for Everyman

IF THEY HAVE any money, [the merciful] don't give till it hurts—they give till it's gone.
Clarence Jordan, Sermon on the Mount

INVITING the marginalized to the table not only made them equals; it made Jesus their "friend." … The Pharisees viewed this behavior as subversive to their conviction of what Israel needed for true social ordering; Jesus saw it as a manifestation of a new way of holiness based on mercy.
Michael H. Crosby, Spirituality of the Beatitudes

GOD WANTS us to be merciful with ourselves. And besides, our sorrows are not our own. He takes them on himself, into his heart.
Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest

[THE MERCIFUL] will be found consorting with publicans and sinners, careless of the shame they incur thereby. In order that they may be merciful, they cast away the most priceless treasure of human life, their personal dignity and honor.

For the only honor and dignity they know is their Lord's own mercy, to which alone they owe their very lives.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

THERE ARE no "good people," and the best of us say so the most clearly. Saints agree they are sinners; only sinners think they are saints. Only fools demand justice, for where would we be if we got it? No, mercy is our only hope from God, and our neighbors' only hope from us as well.
Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Recent Reflections columns on the beatitudes include Blessed Are Those Who Hunger, Blessed Are Those Who Mourn, Poor in Spirit, and Blessed Are the Meek.

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October 2007, Vol. 51, No. 10