Last week I found a nice little article about Jesus and parables in my teacher box at school. I read through the article thinking how spot on the author was in showing how Jesus is the Master Teacher in using parables to illustrate a point, especially about mercy. I had to smile though, as I knew a couple of our 7th graders were ahead of this author in teaching about mercy through parables. Parables are powerful as they make their point using something the audience understands and can relate to and will “get,” and I’m not surprised our wise 7th graders tapped into this. Listen to Mikaila as she uses Matthew 18:21-35 to tell us about evangelizing through mercy.
Mercy
by Mikaila K.
One example of evangelizing mercy is living the gospel. You can live the gospel by listening and following Jesus. Mercy is being kind and compassionate to people who don’t deserve it. The word mercy is similar to grace, which means giving someone something they don’t deserve because you love them.
There’s some great examples of mercy in the Bible. One of them is “The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.” In the story, a servant owes the king a hundred thousand dollars, but the servant can’t pay up. The king says that his family should be sent off and auctioned at a slave market, but when the servant asks for mercy, the king gives it to him. When the servant walks out, he comes upon a fellow servant who owes him ten dollars, but instead of giving him mercy, he demands the money and gets him thrown in jail. The king is furious and sent him to jail until he could pay his whole debt.
The point of the story is that God gives us mercy and forgives our sins, so we should be merciful and be forgiving to people who have done us wrong. An example of living through the Gospel with mercy, relating to the parable, could be forgiving someone who has borrowed lunch money and hasn’t paid you back. It’s understandable that a person would be frustrated and want their money back, but God wants us to be patient, forgiving and to be merciful.
For the month of October we will be joining with the parish in bringing pasta and pasta sauce for our weekly school Masses, living out the Spiritual Works of mercy by providing meals for the hungry though the food we bring each week. The pasta and sauce collected at our school Masses, as well as the Sunday Masses, will go to the Redlands Boys & Girls club and our AJ’s Kitchen at Columbia to provide meals for those who are hungry. The Boys & Girls club serves lunch to kids on Thursdays and AJ’s Kitchen feeds the homeless on Mondays.
During the other school months the canned food collected at our school Masses goes to Family Services here in Redlands. We collect about two and a half large tubs of food each week. For the month of September that was a total of 10 tubs. Thank you for helping out those who do not have enough to eat.
Thank you. Mrs. Alhadef