Some Thoughts on the Year of Mercy.

We’re in the year of Mercy now, and things are swimming. No doubt the Grapes of Wrath have been trampled, fermented and served in glasses at the Holiday Parties we attend. A few of us might even be breathing a sigh of relief as we lost our tempers last week and got out the last word in an argument, that cutting retort to our foes, or closest friends, and now that it’s been purged from our system, we can go into this with the proper mindset.

The Jubilee Doors have been open, Ladies and Gentlemen. Advent is winding down, and already our close pals have been sending us Holiday Cards, or at least well wishes. Some of us are prepared for flights to go home, I myself plan to fly across country later this week to see my family, some of whom I haven’t seen in over a year (or at all, as I am told my cousin had a child). But what is Mercy?

I think of a moment many years ago. I was working at a grocery store, and sleeping on a bench outside the store on my break. I remember being woken rather roughly by one of my coworkers of whom I have no kind words to say.

“You have to do a Carry-Out!” She said, shaking me roughly. I went inside rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, lamenting my fate when I saw something that was reason to wail and gnash my teeth. Sure on the surface the lady might have seemed just like any other lady to the untrained eye, but when a man works in retail for years, you can spot them from a mile away. The kind of people that are beyond unkind, the kind whom Marley tells to expect three ghosts to visit before the clock strikes 12.

With a scowl and mistrustful eyes, she took a look at me and motioned for me to lead the way as she drove the electric cart towards the exit. She clipped my ankles a few times, I tried to move further along but she told me to hold onto the cart as she mistrusted the brakes. I don’t remember being all that kind, as I loaded her groceries into the backseat of her car. I don’t even think I smiled, truth be told I was exhausted, wanted to go back to taking a nap, or at least get some breakfast. Maybe it was because I obviously didn’t want to be there, or maybe that wasn’t noticeable.

“Thank you, it’s been so hard since my husband died.”

I’d like to say, I felt really good after that and there was some magical jesus moment and we all cried and hugged and that’s the lesson to be learned here, but that’s not true. I think I dismissed it and just nodded. I was exhausted, from work and school. I wonder about that missed chance, did it make her feel worse? Maybe she didn’t even notice, I sure as hell didn’t.

There are countless moments like this, day in and day out. I suppose, they happen so often we don’t even notice them. Failure to seize every opportunity to deliver mercy and by extension the lessons of Christ, seems a sad inevitability of humanity, but one can try. In the end, all a person can do is have faith, and soldier on.