Mercying by Mary Sullivan rsm

We in the Mercy Family may now have reached one of the most demanding moments in our history. In trying to enflesh the persistent Gospel call to be a Mercy Global Presence, we now face the hard questions of the further personal and social conversion to which we and all humanity are summoned.

We use the noun, “mercy,” so much to describe our life and mission that we may have softened its meaning and treated this mercifulness as an already acquired and comfortable response to the world and its people.  Perhaps we need to refresh our hearing of the full range of this Gospel call and reinvigorate our dedication to what Jesus constantly asks of us, by more often using the verb, “mercy.”

To mercy another, to engage in mercying, to mercify is to act and advocate, to heal and protest, to accompany and clear the way, to do the works of mercy in the field hospitals of the world and work to eliminate the need for some of these field hospitals.  It is to succor the crucified peoples and call humanity away from its crucifying structures and practices.  It is to become for and with others the active hands and voice of God’s own Mercying...