The Face of Mercy

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Matthew 5:7

AS WE BEGIN

A 70-year-old woman named Marinella Beretta was found dead in Prestino, near Lake Como in northern Italy. She was seated at her table in a mummified state when police discovered her remains more than two years after she had died. Marinella’s neighbors, it turns out, had not seen her for at least two-and-a-half years. She was “loneliness personified,” wrote Massimo Gramellini, a journalist covering the story. “People die alone. And we live alone, which is almost worse.”

The closing words of his article are convicting: “The mystery of Marinella’s invisible life behind the closed gate of her cottage teaches us a terrible lesson. The real sadness is not that the others did not notice her death. It is that they did not realize Marinella Beretta was alive.”

DEVOTIONAL INSIGHT

After receiving God’s mercy, we must recognize the needs of others. It’s easy to ignore the needs of our family members who live under the same roof, to say nothing of unseen neighbors and friends. But we are called to notice.

OBSERVATIONS

Jesus calls us to notice others, to compassionately acknowledge their need. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). This is the heartbeat of our Beatitude—what Calvin understood as suffering with our neighbor, or what today we might call empathy.

Manifesting God’s mercy will produce not a small trickle of mercy, but a massive deluge. “Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’” (Matthew 18:21).

Forgiveness is not an example of mere benevolence; it is an eschatological act of faith and hope. In other words, by extending forgiveness to others, we demonstrate our belief that Christ will return and mercifully set all things right. Our salvation enables us to face the most grievous forms of evil with hope. “Where sin increased,” says Paul, “grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20).

APPLICATION

Because God alone can fully heal our wounds and revive the dead, we need to acquire His merciful heart if we are to forgive others. In view of this, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Should we say anything less?

Let us pray that the Lord would transform our hard, unforgiving hearts. Every time we extend mercy, forgiveness, and compassion in the name of Christ—a love that pardons another of his guilt—we reach forward to his coming reign, a kingdom blessing that we enjoy here on earth as it is in heaven.