Readings: Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13; Psalm 146; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12.
Grace and peace to you dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.
In today’s Gospel, we have the Beatitude. The Beatitude presents who we ought to be as children of God and citizens of the kingdom.
Today, I will preach on one of the Beatitudes.
Let us focus on the fifth Beatitude – “Happy are the merciful, they shall have mercy shown to them.”
Let us keep this message simple. We begin by asking ourselves these three questions.
Have I experienced or enjoyed God’s mercy?
Am I a merciful person?
What does it mean to be merciful in practical ways?
Let us reflect more on the third point – what does it mean to be merciful?
I. To be merciful means to treat the vulnerable, weak, sick, elderly, defenceless, the physically challenged, and the dying, with kindness and compassion.
II. It means to forgive those who have hurt us, especially when it is within our power to hurt them (think about Joseph in the Book of Genesis, who chose to forgive his brothers who had betrayed him, when he had the power to punish them).
III. It means to be sensitive and show kindness and compassion in concrete action to the poor, suffering, and the needy. This also includes all souls in purgatory.
IV. It means to treat people not according to what they deserve but graciously (better than they deserve), just as we have been or want to be treated by God.
This includes treating those who have made mistakes or acted wrongly, with gentleness, understanding, and kindness.
The lack of this merciful attitude is one of the reasons why many families are broken today.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul reminds us of how God has honoured and elevated us better than we deserve.
V. Mercy is not just being kind towards others but also treating ourselves with compassion and love and not neglecting the cries and needs of our souls.
Dear friends, we have all been called to imitate God, who is the Father of mercy (2 Corinthians 1:3) and who shows us mercy and grace when we do not deserve it.
We are called to show mercy not just because we won’t obtain mercy otherwise. With or without showing mercy ourselves, God still shows mercy to us, but when we show mercy, we testify that we have been shown mercy and we dispose ourselves to enjoy more of God’s mercy.
Lord, thank you for showing me so much mercy. Teach me to be grateful for the mercies received and to be merciful to others, just as you have been merciful to me, Amen.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on January 29, 2023.