The Ripple Effect of Kindness

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Picture every act of kindness as a pebble dropped into a pond.

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The ripples spread outwards and

eventually return to where they began.

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In one of his beatitudes, Jesus speaks

about being merciful this way...

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. So let's join a conversation with

our Good News team Lynn Shematek,

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Lauren Welch and Jon Shematek.

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Lauren: Today, we're going to talk

about the 5th Beatitude in Matthew's

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Gospel, Blessed are the merciful, for

they shall have mercy shown to them.

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Jon, what's the first thing that

comes to mind when you hear merciful?

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Jon: the first thing that comes to

mind when I hear merciful is that

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maybe I've done something wrong.

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And maybe somebody has

been kind to me about that.

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Showing me mercy means they've It

might be being forgiven, but I'm also

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thinking that it just they are making

me feel okay about it, even though

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I've done something that might've

been wrong or offensive in some way.

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That's the first thing

that flies into my mind.

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Lauren: How about you, Lynn?

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Lynn: I often think of the, movies I

used to see in the gladiators, and they'd

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be, with the thumb up, and then put

the thumb down, I always thought, oh,

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that's an interesting way of doing it.

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But anyway, merciful is

something that I really work on.

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I like to be merciful, because I hope

people will be as merciful to me.

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I recognize how many of the things I do

could be taken as, irritant or, parts

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of speech I might use inadvertently.

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I hope people are merciful when they think

about what I'm saying and what I'm doing.

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Lauren: It sounds like it's really

important that we understand ourselves.

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and know how we might offend or, have

someone show us mercy, if people show

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us mercy, it makes us more willing,

to have mercy for other people.

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Jon: a lot of times when I've done a

small act of kindness like letting a car

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get in ahead of me or someone With their

shopping cart get into the cashier I

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think I'll let them in I sometimes think

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Maybe someone will let me in the

next time maybe someone Be kind to

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me because I've shown this little

act of kindness to someone else.

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Lauren: The disciples had a hard

time figuring out how many times

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they needed to be merciful, In the

Gospels, Peter asked Jesus, How many

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times do I have to forgive my brother?

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Seven times?

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And Jesus seems to say,

a lot more than that.

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And even our enemies, even people

that we really don't like, and

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that's when it gets harder, I think.

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how do we begin to have mercy towards

people who do horrendous things.

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But how do we begin to have mercy with

people who we just don't understand?

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Lynn: That's a great question.

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I think that's very difficult

because you're dealing with

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the fear of the unknown.

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we don't know the person, we don't

understand, this is terrible, this

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person's done this, and it's awful.

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it's very hard to get around that.

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You have to realize that they're all

human beings, they're all children of God.

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maybe they have a problem and

they just can't express it So

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that's a very difficult thing to

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Jon: Yeah, I absolutely

agree it's difficult to do.

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I'm wondering whether the first

step, might be having the intention.

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We may not always have the ability,

but having the intention to understand

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the other person, we can never

know how someone else is feeling.

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we can't say that.

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that's one of the most irritating

things I hear is when someone

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says, I know how you feel.

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you don't know how I feel.

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I don't know how you feel, but,

can I begin to imagine what

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that person is experiencing?

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if I can begin to put myself in

their shoes, not to identify them

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so much, but to get an inner sense

of where they are, how are they

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hurting, because they probably are

hurting if they're doing something.

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I'm thinking, you gave a great example,

Lauren, from the scriptures about how

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many times do we need to forgive someone.

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When I was thinking about, The

word mercy, after you asked me the

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first time, I thought about, where

do we see that in the Gospels?

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how many times do we hear someone

calling out to Jesus, have mercy on me.

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I'm blind.

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Have mercy on me.

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My daughter's dying.

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this desire, that the divine one

will enter that person's life and

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help them move toward healing.

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when Jesus came to, so many

circumstances of his healing ministries,

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he felt compassion for the person.

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He, which literally means he

entered into their suffering,

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he was suffering with them.

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he was perfect, he could do that.

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we're not quite that good.

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It takes practice, just like everything.

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if we can, begin to cultivate a feeling

of compassion a step in that direction

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is what you were saying, Lynn, is to

recognize that we're all children of

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God, and siblings together in that

situation, then maybe we'll find it

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possible to be a little bit compassionate,

understanding, kind, even to someone

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who is In our judgment, really awful

people, if they're doing bad things, I

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think it is possible to show them mercy.

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Not easy, but possible.

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Lauren: I agree with you, Jon.

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Along with what you're saying about

putting ourselves in their shoes, we

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can get to know them a little better

by, asking where they're hurting,

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What is most important to them?

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getting to know about their

family, their circumstances.

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if we start by getting to know them.

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then I think compassion comes a

little easier sometimes if we begin to

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talk about things we have in common.

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We may develop a relationship.

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In relationship, you can show mercy.

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We might be able to show mercy, more often

if we're in relationship with people.

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Jesus actually got to know

people pretty quickly.

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the Centurion who came to him,

he saw him for who he was It's

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being present to that person.

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That's hard when you don't like

someone . When you like someone,

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it's not so hard, but when you don't

like someone, it's hard to be present

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Jon: I've always thought of Jesus, as

having the most highly developed sense of

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intuition of any human being that's ever

walked on this earth he would ask people

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what they needed but he knew in his heart.

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what they needed.

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So I think that, he's pretty good

example for us in terms of what it,

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what we can do to be merciful to others.

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Lauren: He was merciful from the cross,

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Jon: Yes.

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Lauren: from the beginning, throughout

all of his ministry, he was merciful

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to people by loving them, and I think

because of his great love for the divine.

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And if we understand how

much the divine loves us.

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Then, we can extend that and know that

the divine allows other people, if we

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really do know that we are all children

of God, we are siblings of one another.

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So what can we do?

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How can we begin to cultivate this mercy

towards others, what are small things

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that we can do with someone that we

haven't seen for a while, or someone

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that has a need that we could fulfill?

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What are some small things we can do?

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Lynn: But one of the most important

things is contact, communication

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Between people.

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write an email or, send

a text or something.

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Just say, thinking of you, because

I've gotten notes like that, thinking

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of you and I hope you're doing well

it's really, simple but very powerful.

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Lauren: Anything else?

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Jon: I agree with what Lynn just

said, because reaching out to

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people, is a great first step.

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the other thing we could do, is when

we meet someone and ask, how are you?

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to look interested in

knowing the answer to that.

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rather than just saying, hi, how you

doing, and hoping people say fine and

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move on if you really look open to hear

how are they truly, just like we did a

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few minutes ago before we were on camera,

really seriously interested in the other.

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I think that's the whole

secret, of, mercy, and being

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merciful, is having an interest.

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Having, and then go beyond

interest to love eventually.

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But let's say having at least

an interest in the other.

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Someone who is not you.

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Someone, perhaps, who's

estranged from you.

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Or just someone you've

lost track of over time.

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So I think making contact is good.

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we have these opportunities in

casual encounters with people.

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Surprising opportunities to

really connect with them and to

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find out, how are they doing?

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how often is it that if you feel listened

to, you feel so much better, you feel like

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you're taking a step toward being healed?

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Lauren: I think listening to

other people is probably the

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greatest gift we can give them.

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We can listen them into being the

person that they are to become.

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deep listening is one of the things

that I think is, A gift that we all

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can give, and we can give it freely.

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Jon: I think for our viewers and

listeners, I'm wondering what

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you think the word mercy means.

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I'm wondering if you can think of times

in your own life where you have shown

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mercy or have mercy shown to you in

something big or something very small.

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And what can you do today

to show mercy to another?

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I want to thank everyone for being

with us in this conversation.

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Lynn: Take care.

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Lauren: Peace and blessings

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..............

Dolores: This episode on the Beatitudes has been brought

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to you by listening for clues.

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You can find us at our

website listeningforclues.com,

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on our YouTube channel or on just

about any audio podcast channel.

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hope to see you soon.