My Orthodox Blog

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His Eminence Metropolitan Nathaneal of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago has established Mercy as the theme for 2019-20.   During the 2019 Sunday School Teacher’s Workshop this past weekend, I had the pleasure to "kick off" the season with a presentation on Mercy and how it’s expressed in the Orthodox Church.  My next few posts will be from the workshop.

Mercy, or “eλεος" in Greek, is something we ask for often, as in “Κυριε, ελεισον με” (“Lord, have mercy on me.")  Mercy is mentioned in the psalms, in the Gospels, in our petitions, in our prayers… but what is it?  What exactly is mercy?   

It’s like compassion, (σπλαγχνίζομαι) but it’s different in the same way sympathy and empathy are similar but different.   Sympathy means understanding someone else's suffering. It's more cognitive in nature and keeps a certain distance. When someone dies we send the surviving family a note stating, “Our sympathies concerning your loss.”   Empathy, on the other hand, means experiencing someone else's frame of mind. It requires an emotional component of feeling what the other person is facing, as in a note stating “I cried when I heard the news of your father’s passing.”   It’s the difference between conveying understanding vs having an emotional reaction.  

In this same way, Mercy and Compassion are similar and different.

As nouns, the difference between mercy and compassion is that mercy is responding with leniency; while compassion is deep awareness (in the gut) of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it. For example, Compassion is when your stomach cringes when you see or simply hear that your child tore the skin off their knee skidding across a gravel pavement.  Mercy is when you kiss his bandage instead of scold him for attempting the dangerous stunt, and when he stops crying you calmly explain the risk.

The one is an emotional response while the other is a logical one.  And although the two are used interchangeably, as in “Lord, have mercy on us” and “Lord, have compassion on us,” we pray for God’s leniency when we ask for mercy.   We hope His mercy, unworthy as we might be, will lead to forgiveness and healing and that He will answer our petitions.  

To simplify it even more, Mercy is responding out of LOVE and not LAW.  And when it comes to God, we realize we don’t deserve God’s grace, but we ask for it because we know He is a merciful and loving God.

Throughout history, from the beginning of mankind, people who have experienced God's mercy have written about it in songs, letters, stories.  

We hear about it when we read Psalm 103 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.   He will not always strive with us, nor, will He keep His anger forever.   He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.  

In Psalm 50/51 we know that His mercy brings forgiveness.  Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.

In Psalm 136, we know His mercy is unending.  Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever...

Next: Receiving God's Mercy.