By Fr. Adolf Washington –
“Did you have mercy on us? Did you show mercy to my son? You have taken happiness away from us. Why should I have mercy toward you?” a distressed mother, Samereh Alinejad screamed and cried inconsolably at Bilal Gheisari who stood on a chair on the gallows, blindfolded, his hands shackled with the noose around his neck on April 15th2014.
She was at the gallows before Gheisari, seven years after he killed her 17-year-old son Abdollah in a street brawl in a northern Iranian town.
By Law, Samereh had the Right to kick the chair and let him hang or pronounce mercy. After seven years of pain, Samereh did what touched and shocked thousands of people including several media persons gathered at the execution scene.
She slipped off the noose from the killer’s neck and breathed mercy and pardon upon him.
Samereh’s act of mercy would certainly shame many of us who cannot overlook and pardon even petty squabbles or wrongs people have done or caused us. We pass judgments, penalize and punish, hold grudges, scheme revenge, and harbour hatred against others even for years.
Even as Jesus hung in unbearable pain upon the cross on Calvary He pronounced unconditional mercy upon those who nailed him to the cross. When He said “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing” (Luke23:34) forgiving not just the Roman Government or the soldiers, but also the religious leaders and even the many who followed him who either spoke against him or chose to remain silent in His trial.
Saint Paul reminds us of being merciful to one another as God is. ‘Bear with one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgive as the Lord has forgiven you’ (Colossians 3:13).
Mercy is a prelude to forgiveness. When you show mercy, you forgive. When you become too juddgmental you become less merciful. Being judgmental doesn’t transform people, but being merciful does.
Jesus transformed people by mercy not by being judgmental. Jesus exhorted people ‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Don’t judge, andyou won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven’ (Luke 6:36-37)
Have you lately condemned or judged someone? Try being merciful; to be merciful is to feel someone’s pain in your heart.