The annual Mercy Ministry Companions conference last week was a time of both joy and challenge. One hundred people – companions and some of our friends in ministry – gathered to enjoy each other’s company and to reflect on the conference theme, Extending Horizons.
‘Joy’ at the opportunity to catch up with so many friends and colleagues and have time to discuss how they and their work are going.
‘Challenge’ as we pondered the input of our keynote speakers, Ian Hamm and Sheila Curran RSM. Both reminded us of significant shortcomings in our society, which almost invariably reflect our failings at justice and right relationships.
Ian spoke about our perceptions – self-perception and the perceptions others have of us. He spoke of the need for positive perceptions of self and others, a mindset through which we prioritise looking at the strengths of other people. For Indigenous Australians, perceptions have often been negative, with destructive consequences. Ian posed the question – What’s good about being an Aboriginal? And there are plenty of answers, including the cultural focus Aboriginal people have on community, on being part of the whole. This sits in stark contrast with a society where ‘me’ seems to be the word that matters.
Sheila provided a contemporary perspective on the corporal works of mercy, pointing out that in a world where greed is often unbridled and wastage is accepted as normal, injustice abounds at an individual and national level. The data Sheila presented was, without doubt, confronting and unsettling. The unethical conduct of some multinational corporations, national governments, and in the colonial era, the Catholic Church, has contributed to the suppression of indigenous cultures and the wholesale takeover of lands held for millennia by first nations peoples.
For Ian and Sheila, the common theme was the dignity and equality of all humankind. The consequence of this, is that we all share responsibility for upholding human rights and ensuring the needs of our fellow human beings are met. Reflecting on our use of language, Sheila reminded us that our fellow human beings are not ‘customers’ we ‘deliver a service to’ but people we ‘encounter’ in our ministries when we acknowledge their humanity and ours.
Sheila and Ian are people of hope. Both were clear that despite the sometimes alarming, unjust treatment of our planet and our fellow human beings, we each, within ourselves, hold the power to make compassion, love, justice, solidarity and care our personal way of being. Knowing we are created in the image of God (Gen 1:27) means that goodness is core to our being. Ian stressed this when he asked us to always look for what is good in people. Sheila reminded us that we each hold responsibility for how our lives are being lived, inviting us to identify what we personally can contribute to right relationships in our world, at all levels. As Catherine McAuley wrote: The simplest and most practical lesson I know is to resolve to be good today, but better tomorrow.
Sheila developed a number of discussion and reflection questions. Some of these are repeated below – they will be fruitful questions for discussion at board meetings, staff/team meetings, and for personal reflection.
- As love, compassion, justice, care and solidarity involve work, how do you ensure that love, compassion, care, justice and solidarity are key elements in your centres of education, health care and community services?
- The challenge today is to build alliances with those who are working for change. How do you do this in your particular ministry?
- How can we ensure that we do not collude with abusive systems which continue to inflict pain and suffering on people living in poverty into the future?
- How can we use our connections within the Mercy World so that we move away from charity-focussed ministries to holding the state accountable for working for structural change?
- How do you create awareness about the environmental crisis, including practical responses at a personal and organisational level?
The closing reflection is a beautiful poem by Sister of Mercy, Mary Wickham. Mary notes the following regarding the use of a female identity for Mercy: the feminine metaphor is not intended to exclude, and permission is given to adapt the pronouns according to circumstances if required.
Mercy Is
Mercy is a woman of indeterminate age
and unremarkable appearance.
She is not fussy about the company she keeps,
and tends to be full of excuses for her friends,
having seen life from their angle.
Her heart, like her pockets, is capacious.
She has a voice rich in tender understanding
But is at her best in silence
when she sits alongside
the grief-stricken and the guilty
and their sorrow seeps into her soul.
Curiously, she sees herself reflected
in the eyes of both murderer and victim,
so sits not in judgement but companionably.
She is a subtle teacher.
She makes strong cups of tea, cup after cup.
Her hands are worn by work
but eagerly sought by the dying.
Her feet are calloused from long roads
trudged with refugee and beggar.
She is an endurer of all horrors.
Mercy has a face wrinkled by kindness
and worn by the cost of living,
but even in hovels she has been given to laughter
and awareness of simple pleasures.
She has a store of lore and wisdom
but is never heard to complain
that she’s heard any story a hundred times before,
believing each teller to be
entitled to a hearing as if to the one and only.
Mercy is a lady comfortable to be with –
the safest and soundest –
blessed in her being
with the indisputable reality
that she is true daughter,
in manner and in mind,
of the maker of the universe.
https://marywickhamrsm.org.au/poem/mercy-is/
Carmel Ross, Trustee Director, Mercy Ministry Companions