Emmanuel
EUCHARIST: LIVING & EVANGELIZING
The Year of Mercy and
the Prophet Jonah
by Owen F. Cummings
Called to a mission of mercy, Jonah fought God at every turn. What about us?
Deacon Owen
F. Cummings, of
the Diocese of
Salt Lake City,
Utah, is the
academic dean
and Regent’s
Professor of
Theology at
Mount Angel
Seminary in
Saint Benedict,
Oregon.
Pope Francis’s Year of Mercy is surely a graced moment for all Christians,
not only Catholics, indeed for all of humankind. Much continues to
be written about the Holy Father’s own theology of mercy, and one
thanks God for this. Sometimes, however, one hears an alarm at Pope
Francis’ innovative views with their permeative stress on God’s love
and mercy. An informed acquaintance with the Christian tradition will
quickly establish that this emphasis from the pope is nothing new, but
is in fact a retrieval of the best of our theological thinking. This central
theme of God’s love and mercy, however, comes to us also from our
Jewish forebears. Let me point briefly to a few passages that tell of
God’s love and mercy.
Jeremiah 31:20, with God speaking through Jeremiah: “Is Ephraim my
dear son? Is he the child I delight in? As often as I speak against him, I
still remember him. Therefore, I am deeply moved for him; I will surely
have mercy on him.” Consulting the various Hebrew dictionaries, one
finds out that this word for “mercy,” rehem, is related to the word for
“womb.” Perhaps literally, the passage may be rendered “I will surely
have womb feelings for Ephraim.”
Psalm 103:13 tells of the “womb-love” of a father: “As a father has
compassion (rehem) for his children, so the Lord has compassion
(riham) for those who fear him.” Once again, God’s “womb-love” for his
children.
And so beautifully in Hosea 11:1-8: “When Israel was a child, I loved
him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called after them, the
more they went from me. . . . Yet it was I that taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to
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