Blessed are the merciful
Hugh Bates explains that mercy and kindness are interchangeable,
and that we have an obligation to help our neighbours
through practical means, such as almsgiving
G
od is merciful. On this point there is total interfaith con- almsgiving in the New Testament is St Paul’s ‘collection for the
sensus. Allah is ‘the merciful, the compassionate’. ‘For his saints’. Reading between the difficult and convoluted lines of 2
mercy endureth forever’ is the regular response of the Corinthians, it would seem that there is more to it than a simple
levitical choirs to the recitation of the mighty acts of God. ‘Kyrie exercise, however generous, in Christian aid. Also, the conclud-
eleison’ or ‘Lord have mercy’ occupies a similar place in Chris- ing expression of gratitude and relief, ‘Thanks be to God for his
tian litanies. Greek collects often close with the phrase: ‘for you unspeakable gift’, seems at first sight to be more than a little over
are a merciful God who loves mankind’ (philanthropos). In the the top. Nevertheless, St Paul has chosen his words carefully.
West, perhaps unfortunately, Kyrie eleison carries too much of What greater gift could there have been than the outburst of
a penitential overtone. When Dives in the parable approaches affection and thanksgiving generated by the overcoming of the
Abraham with the entreaty ‘have mercy upon me’, he is not seek- old racial and ethnic separation in the present mutual fellowship
ing pardon for his misspent life, but for the (impossible) favour of giving and receiving?
that he might send Lazarus to refresh his raging thirst. ‘Have
mercy’ is best understood, then, as ‘Do me a favour.’ The kin- Other examples
dred word ‘eleemosynary’ takes us into the realms of charitable Almsgiving is only one among many possible examples of
giving. Almsgiving is mercy in practice. mercy. Most cannot be quantified in terms of pounds and pence.
The fifteen-year-old John Milton was completely on target in his
A religious duty paraphrase of Psalm 136: ‘Let us with a gladsome mind, Praise
Before state welfare and before charitable fundraising became the Lord for he is kind, For his mercies ay endure, Ever faithful,
big business, members of society needed to accept responsibil- ever sure.’
ity for one another. Almsgiving was (and still is) the practical Mercy and kindness are interchangeable. An act of kindness
expression of this. People are expected to see their neighbours is an act of mercy and vice versa. Forget about money. There is
right in time of need. This is what it means to have neighbours. always time that may be given, or hospitality, or a timely word
Neighbours do not keep the score or submit accounts. You of comfort and encouragement, or the offer of help in time of
cannot charge for doing somebody a favour, or it is no longer need. To ‘love thy neighbour as thyself ’ is the second great com-
a favour. mandment of the law. ‘Who do you think was neighbour to the
Where the poor are always with you, almsgiving is a religious man who fell among thieves?’ The answer is obvious – in a literal
duty of the first order. ‘Almsgiving delivers from death’, Tobit pidgin English translation, it is the one who ‘did mercy with him’.
tells Tobias, ‘and saves people from passing down to darkness. The Good Samaritan is the proverbial embodiment of practical
Almsgiving is a most effective offering for all who do it in the mercy and kindness. ‘Go, and do thou likewise!’ In being kind
presence of the Most High.’ It may be tempting and easy to be (or merciful) and doing favours for one another, and perhaps for
superior about the ‘decent bason’ and the ‘poore mens boxe’, but ourselves as well, we will begin to understand the kindness of a
it was a sound instinct that placed almsgiving at the heart of the philanthropic God. ‘Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!’
Communion Liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer. Blessed are the merciful. They will be able to recognize it as it is
The most conspicuous and possibly controversial example of shown to them.
ND
VI The Apostles argument
Geoffrey Kirk weighs up the evidence for the existence of women Apostles in the early Church
T
here are, of course, apostles and Mary Magdalen, it has been claimed touching and believing with which John
Apostles. The Twelve whom Jesus (on no less an authority than that of John ends his Gospel – is lost if Mary is simply
chose (after a night in prayer to the Chrysostom) is ‘apostle to the Apostles’; counted as an Apostle like all the rest.
Father, as Luke tells us), and whom at that is to say, she took a message about the Junia/s at Roman 16.7 is nowadays
their calling he named ‘Apostles’, are a resurrection from the Lord to the Twelve. commonly said to be an Apostle. But
case to themselves. Linked with them But the issue is by no means so simple. again matters are by no means as clear as
are Paul (who sets out his own case The story turns, not on Mary’s identity many would have them be. Even granted,
for an individual calling at Galatians with the Twelve, but on the ironic point which is itself open to doubt, that the
1.2) and perhaps Barnabas from his that she is not one of them. companion of Andronicus is a woman
commissioning at Acts 13.2–3. In Jewish tradition, a lone woman could (his wife, sister, mother?), there remains
Other uses of the term are less not be a witness in a court of law, which the matter of the meaning of the phrase
prescriptive: so Augustine is sometimes required three male witnesses. She who which follows. Should it be translated
referred to as ‘apostle to the English’, cannot witness is made to do so to those as ‘well known to the Apostles’ or ‘well
Boniface as ‘apostle to the Germans’, and who are called to be witnesses. The point known as apostles’? (‘those outstanding
Francis Xavier as ‘apostle to Japan’. – part of the paradoxical theme of seeing, apostles…my compatriots’ [Jerusalem
18
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newdirections
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December 2007
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