Luke 6:36-38

Luke 6:36-38

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.

Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give and gifts will be given to you;

a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,

will be poured into your lap.

For the measure with which you measure

will in return be measured out to you.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, when you revealed yourself to us, you revealed yourself as Merciful Love. I am not worthy of the gift of your mercy. Help me to welcome it and experience it to the full.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Be Merciful: In the Old Testament, God commanded Israel: “Be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Here, Jesus reformulates the teaching and replaces the Levitical command to imitate God’s holiness (Hebrew: kadosh) with a command to imitate his mercy (Hebrew: hesed). To be holy was “to be set apart.” This meant that Israel was called to be set apart from the other nations to serve and worship the Lord as a holy people. The subtle difference between the divine attributes of holy and merciful points to a difference between the Old Covenant and the New: “The quest for holiness in ancient Israel meant that God’s people had to separate themselves from everything ungodly, unclean, and impure, including Gentiles and sinners (Leviticus 15:31; 20:26). Jesus gives holiness a new focus, defining it as mercy that reaches out to others and no longer divides people into segregated camps or disqualifies some and not others to enter the family of God” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 1843). We are still called to separate ourselves from sin and to be a holy people, and we have a mission of mercy toward our brothers and sisters.

2. Stop Judging and Condemning: The command to be merciful is followed by four concrete ways to live mercy. The first concerns how we judge others. This refers especially to the temptation to judge the heart and intentions of someone else. There is nothing wrong with objectively judging external actions as good or evil, right or wrong. But our judgment needs to stop there. The judgment of a person’s heart – their conscience, deepest intentions, and psychological state – is best reserved to God alone. Good intentions or difficult circumstances do not justify evil actions. But we have to humbly recognize that our knowledge of the human heart is very limited and only God, who is omniscient, can judge properly. The second way to live mercy concerns condemnation, moving from the judgment of someone to pronouncing them guilty and in need of punishment. Being merciful doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to evil or being naïve about moral evil. Even punishing someone for their evil actions isn’t being unmerciful. When a parent corrects and punishes their child, it is often an act of merciful love. They don’t want to see their child harm themselves in the future or develop bad habits. The punishment can be a teaching moment. What Jesus is emphasizing in his teaching is to point out that if we are incapable of judging a person’s heart, we must leave the ultimate sentencing to God, who, once again, knows all things and can see into the depths of a person’s heart. God alone can ultimately glorify the righteous and condemn the unrighteous. 

3. Forgive and Give: The two negative prohibitions against judging and condemning are complemented by two positive exhortations to forgive and be generous in giving to others. If we refrain from judging, we will not be judged. If we do not condemn, we will not be condemned. If we forgive, we will be forgiven. And if we give generously, gifts will be given to us in abundance. God is never outdone in generosity. God gives us good gifts with the expectation that we will use them. Just as a parent is excited to see their child flourish with the gifts and education they receive, so God wills that we grow and flourish in holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are Mercy Incarnate. Your entire life speaks of God’s merciful love. Even as you were dying on the Cross, you begged your Father and ours to forgive those who crucified you and hurled insults upon you. I have no reason not to be merciful toward all.

Living the Word of God: Am I withholding mercy or forgiveness toward someone? Do I realize that I will be shown mercy by God if I am merciful toward my brothers and sisters?