Four Reasons the Works of Mercy Are Important | Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R. | From the Introduction to What to Do When Jesus Is Hungry: A Practical Guide to the Works of Mercy | Ignatius Insight
Many good Catholics do not realize how important the works of mercy are in the daily living of the Christian life. Let us begin, then, by looking at a number of reasons why the works of mercy help us to live the gospel more fully.
Love Demands Them
The works of mercy are important because they connect the love of neighbor with the love of God. In the Gospels, our Lord was asked the question, "What is the first of all the commandments?" (Mk 12:28; Mt 22:34-40; Lk 10:25-28) This was apparently a major theological question of the day, one which was hotly debated! The rabbis (teachers) and the scribes (religious lawyers) had gone through the Old Testament writings and various other legislative documents and come up with 613 precepts that had to be obeyed. The debate focused on which of these was the most important. The various scribes who put this question to Jesus were looking for only one answer. Our Lord, however, gave two commandments. Quoting one of them from the Book of Deuteronomy (6:5), he said: "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment" (Mt 22:37-38). That was the only answer the scribe was looking for, but our Lord went further. Quoting from Leviticus (19:18), he added: "And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets" (Mt 22:39-40). What our Lord is teaching us here is that we cannot separate the love of God from the love of our neighbor. One without the other is incomplete. They must go together, as we shall see elsewhere in the New Testament.
The Eucharist Calls Us to Charity
The second reason we must perform the works of mercy is because the Holy Eucharist, which is "the source and summit of the Christian life" as the Second Vatican Council described it, moves us from sacramental union with Christ in his Eucharistic Body to union with Christ in his Mystical Body, in the least of his brothers and sisters.
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