“The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strained”

Portia’s famous and beautiful soliloquy in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, has inspired me, once again, to reflect on the virtue that best describes God’s openness to everyone, an openness burned and purified in love. I re-read the soliloquy in which Portia, pretending to be a lawyer, addresses Shylock the plaintiff, seeking justice for Portia’s friend, Antonio who owes Shylock interest payments from a loan. Portia asserts that Antonio should be forgiven the debt. It is a pivotal place in the play since Shylock is a Jew who bears his own baggage of intolerance from blood thirsty, opportunistic citizens happy to have a victim to oppose. Portia overrides all the biased assertions from both sides of the argument before her. In her mind and heart, mercy has no constraints, no raison d’état to be given. It is God-rooted, not rule-governed.

With this blog, I try to be apolitical. We are all spiritual beings and we sometimes need encouragement despite our political preferences. As a Catholic, my faith is supposed to accept everyone in order to help every member of the Church find the truth in our scriptures and teachings. It is incumbent on us to read and study scripture and to study and listen to—as well as discuss—our learning and insights with reputable theologians and other friends seeking to expand their minds and souls in the faith. Some of us join groups that enliven these pursuits and deepen our understanding on what is happening in the world and how we can bring our faith and spirituality to others as well. 

This brings me to the event of this last week which was truly a spiritual event despite the tsunami of criticism that followed it. Many people have been asking me about it so I thought I could share some factual and spiritual insights arising from it. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Church offered a brief homily in which she stated to the new president, “In the name of God I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.”  She looked at the President as she said these words and at the rows of political leaders in attendance; she referenced the words of the President himself from his inaugural speech about wanting to be a “unifier.”  The august history of the Inaugural Morning of Prayer stems from over 80 years in which the president and people who attend, by invitation only, come to the National Cathedral to ask blessings for the term about to begin. It is not a public rally. Every past homilist addressed every president in attendance over those years. Bishop Budde was commissioned to do the same and after much reflection, she crafted her remarks. Asking for blessings means clearly stating intentions, not generic niceties. And so the Bishop mentioned specifically those who are “scared”: migrants, gay and transgender people, children whose parents are migrants.   

Bishop Budde is not the only Church leader confronting the President about immigration and other policies. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops has distributed its statement in opposition to the treatment of migrants and the mass deportation efforts underway. Pope Francis has been clearly opposed as well. In a cruel, short-sighted uninformed statement, Vice President Vance argued that the bishops are doing this for money because their dioceses receive federal funds to assist migrants. This would be laughable if it were not so tragic. If the bishops feared losing money on the issue, they would not want to turn off extremely wealthy Catholics who vehemently support the President’s policy! I give them credit for taking their stand on the issue.

Resistance to the mistreatment of migrants is rooted in scripture. Bishop Budde knows her scripture better than the opponents of her comments. Check out Leviticus 19:33-34 and the teaching of Christ in the New Testament. It is Bishop Budde’s duty to call her flock to these teachings just as it was the duty of Jesus Christ to confront the leaders of his time as he advocated for the marginalized. 

Reflection

In the 1980’s, I spent ten years working in the Sanctuary Movement so I could help in some small way as a result of the martyrdom of the four American women in El Salvador. We in the movement experienced the heartache and blatant treatment against ‘illegal’ migrants from Central America and the Middle East when the war in Kuwait began. We shuttled them to places of safety after a stay in a church or synagogue. These were safe places according to our government which then respected the Biblical mandate that a refugee is safe in a holy tent. It was honored then by the American Government under the separation of Church and State. I never thought I would see the blatant disregard for both the religious claim and constitutional directive. As a result, I will be joining a group in Northeast Ohio for assisting immigrants next month. I am dusting off my marching shoes and will be ready for action. 

Take to your prayer this week the very real horrors the United States is levelling against those Bishop Budde meets every day in her work, those “who are scared.” “The quality of mercy is not strained…”,  it has no reason attached to it; it is not given for any political or personal motivation; it is not retributive justice. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel published a beautiful essay on prayer where he says, “I pray because God, the Shekhinah, is an outcast. I pray because God is in exile, because we all conspire to blur all signs of His presence in the past…I pray because I refuse to despair…” And from poet John Roedel:

“don’t confuse things

true power

is mercy.”

Here are some resources for your prayer: 

There are over 30 references to migrants, refugees and the homeless in the Bible, the most popular being from Leviticus 19:33-34 and Matthew 25:31-40.

You may be able to get an informative interview with Bishop Budde if you google The New Yorker Daily. It is excellent.

The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Sc 1