Learning Mercy
Who is worthy of mercy? Is there anyone you would deny? These questions get to the heart of Jonah’s struggle.
Jonah is famous for his resistance to serve as a prophet. His resistance is not like that of Moses, concerned that he lacks the necessary skills (Ex 4:10-13). Jonah isn’t afraid that he will fail. He is afraid that he will succeed.
Jonah hates the Ninevites. They were brutal enemies of the Jews. He knows God is likely to forgive them if they repent, so Jonah refuses to preach to them. The irony is that his refusal to extend mercy to others drives him straight into the belly of the whale — an allegory for hell.
Jonah’s story stands out in the prophetic tradition because it is both the prophet and his audience who need healing. Jonah needs to learn mercy. The Ninevites need to receive it. God is healing both at once.
This dynamic is at play at Catholic Charities every day. The ministry of charity, exercised at each Catholic Charities, is not only for those being served. It is a ministry for those doing the serving as well. For our employees and volunteers, our ministries provide the opportunity to heal their own hearts, to grow in understanding of those they may have otherwise judged harshly, dismissed, or somehow put outside of God’s love.
When Jesus speaks of the “sign of Jonah,” he is of course speaking of his own three-day descent into hell. By this prophetic action, he earns mercy and healing for all of us. But this does not excuse us from being merciful too. On the contrary, mercy is required of us (Mt 18:23-35). In the prayer Jesus taught, we pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” While Jesus earns mercy for us, he can’t force us to let go of our own hardness of heart. But Jesus is insistent: heaven has no harbor for hatred.
Catholic Charities is a place to learn and practice mercy. It is a place to relinquish judgmentalism in all its expressions (Mt 7:3-5). It is a staging ground for heaven. Those served receive temporary comfort and relief. But those serving, if they will let their hearts be transformed by the ministry of charity, stand to inherit eternal rewards.
George Nixon is the Executive Director of Catholic Charities of West Tennessee.