With our Church’s new year’s dedication to “Mercy: Heart of the Gospel,” the faithful are called to examine the gift of compassion God, our Father and Creator, has bestowed upon us and ask ourselves how we can treat others with the same level of dignity, regardless of their situation.
The first thing I think of when I think of mercy is my “mom,” who has been a nurse at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore for 30 years. She understands the meaning behind the name of her beloved workplace and demonstrates the act of mercy toward her patients there, to strangers, and (perhaps most challenging,) in her relationships with coworkers, classmates, friends and family members.
It’s the Thanksgiving dinner she went out and bought for a family from the other side of the country stranded in Baltimore for a loved one’s surgery. It’s keeping calm and administering the appropriate medications while a patient curses at her and refuses to cooperate. It’s helping the middle school version of me with a project after I threatened to run away.
My mom always inspires me to do more — to be more, and the Church’s Year of Mercy challenges me to do more, to be more — now.
So, for the month of December, I will strive to complete one Spiritual Work of Mercy and one Corporal Work of Mercy during each week. Chances are, I won’t accomplish all of them in such a short span of time, but some acts are worth repeating.
I will keep you posted as I make progress to be more merciful.