Thanksgiving quickly approaches and many look to engage in more acts of charity, like working in a food panty or visiting sick families members. What are some concrete ways we can live the Catholic works of mercy this Thanksgiving? In this episode of On Mission, Chris Pierno, Sarah Scalfaro, and Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. discuss how we can live out the works of mercy at the Thanksgiving table and beyond.
Thanksgiving quickly approaches and many look to engage in more acts of charity, like working in a food panty or visiting sick families members. What are some concrete ways we can live the Catholic works of mercy this Thanksgiving? In this episode of On Mission, Chris Pierno, Sarah Scalfaro, and Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. discuss how we can live out the works of mercy at the Thanksgiving table and beyond.
Over Thanksgiving, we have particular opportunities to put the works of mercy into practice. For example, we can engage in ministries that help feed the hungry, visit the sick, or prison ministry. Even around the dinner table we can accompany others by counseling the doubtful, praying for the living and the dead, and forgiving injuries that other family members or friends may have caused us.
The Catechism tells us that “When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice" (CCC 2446). As Catholics, we are called by the Church to exercise the virtue of justice and give others what they are due through works of mercy. This is lived out through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Mercy is the unmerited, unwarranted love which is poured out regardless of whether or not it is accepted. This love is perfected and continuously given to humanity through God, who is love. All of salvation history is the story of God showering mercy on humanity even in the face of rejection, and showing that there are no limits to the mercy offered–to the point of sending His only begotten Son to die on the cross for us. This mercy which is “endless” and “inexhaustible”, as St. Faustina describes, invites us to not only receive the fullness of it, but to allow mercy to overflow out of us and into others. When we receive God’s mercy, the only response we can have is to share it with others, and this is done through the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.
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