The liturgy of the Word has presented us a reading from the prophet Daniel and a short text from the Gospel of Luke.

The book of the prophet Daniel is a very particular book of the Bible, written in the second century BC during the anti-Jewish persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes but set in the exile of Babylon. It is not a historical book, it is an apocalyptic text: it was needed to give hope to the persecuted people and to reveal hidden truths about future history. Today’s first reading is a prayer that Daniel raises to God to understand a prophecy of Jeremiah on the duration of the exile. The prayer begins with the recognition of God’s greatness and continues with a confession of the sins of the people (they have done evil, they have rebelled against God’s commandments, they have not lilistened to the voice of the prophets). Eventually, Daniel will ask the Lord to appease his wrath. The clarification on the times of the exile will be given but in an even more mysterious way.

I would like to underline a sentence: “To the Lord, our God belong mercy and forgiveness”. This sentence clearly leads us to the Gospel: “Be merciful even as your Father is merciful”.

What is mercy? If there is a difficult word to translate from ancient languages, it is this one. The word mercy comes from the Latin Mercedes which means wages. This word subsequently moved to indicate gift, grace. In the first reading, mercy is the translation of the word rahamim, which means womb, the place of maximum intimacy between mother and child. In this word there is all the tenderness of God, who acts with his children exactly like a mother, full of attention and love, ready to forgive.

In the Gospel, the word translated with mercy indicates rather a compassion, pity.

These are all wonderful nuances that always refer to an issue. Which God do we have in our mind? From the book of Leviticus we heard: “You shall be holy for I the Lord your God I am holy”. (Lev 19:2) In the Gospel according to Matthew Jesus said: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”. (Mt 5:48) And the Evangelist Luke reports the words of Jesus “Be merciful even as your Father is merciful”, an invitationto be like our Father by becoming men and women of mercy, by living a life full of actions of mercy and welcoming. The perfection of God consists precisely in his immense mercy, in knowing how to compassionate and then accompanying in change. God is not an easy-going person who feels sorry for us. He is as benevolent and at the same time demanding as a father and a mother who really love. He is the one who understands our frailty and, without condemning, helps us to accept it and, at times, to overcome it. Do not judge, do not condemn, forgive, give: this is the explanation of mercy. When we judge or condemn we place ourselves in a position of superiority over others. We will soon realize that we are no better than others, that we are sinners like them, sometimes worse than them. If we are not willing to forgive we will live in a state of eternal conflict that will not make us live happy, rest assured.

Many times perhaps we have thought that mercy makes us weak. Maybe it’s true. The Christian, according to common thought, is a loser. Being merciful, always forgiving could cause someone could walk all over you. I would say yes: we are weak, we make ourselves weak because, like God, we have a weakness for others, especially for the least of the earth, we have compassion for them, we make ourselves their neighbor.

Our world, our society is in urgent need of mercy, of men and women who know how to understand the pain that every man brings along and who in the name of Jesus are able to use their heart. Are we capable of it? Not with our strength (because we are very weak)! But God will not let us lack his help if we sincerely want to live as Jesus taught us.