Sunday, April 01, 2012
Gentle Rain from Heaven
Ok, I admit: I cried last week. It wasn’t because of having to go to dentist (which I did, incidentally), nor because of an Arsenal defeat (they have been doing well, for once). I was invited by my godson to see a school play: I thought it would be quite fun to see him on stage, so I went. But I never expected to cry: so what happened? Here were a bunch of six formers, complete with zits, self-conscious body language and varying degrees of vocal prowess who performed
“Les Miserables”. I was actually quite proud of them all, especially of my godson. But I had seen better performances, honestly. But the very fact that it wasn’t a polished performance rendered the content all the more striking: a man steals and is caught by the police. But the injured, rather than demanding justice shows mercy by covering up the fault. So the thief goes free, and changes his life, moved by the mercy of a stranger. Even more, he himself becomes the dispenser of mercy to others: he understands what this one act of a priest has done for him, so he searches out opportunities to be kind and merciful to others.
Mercy can come off as romantic, cheesy, unrealistic; but somehow that night it came off as what it really is, glorious. As Shakespeare puts it:
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
You could see, even with - or maybe because of- the youthful acting going on, that Jean Verjean was being ennobled by the very act of showing compassion. He was not losing anything, as we so often think, but gaining. He was being blessed, even as he was blessing, and looked more regal than any other figure in the cast.
The play came at the right time, of course. Passion week is upon us: we are reminded that somebody overlooked our crime and paid off the gaoler so we could go free. That is the message of the Christian Gospel. In that sense mercy is an attribute to God himself. But do I just presume upon that mercy, or do I turn around and make the lives of my friends, co-workers, acquaintances sweeter with this gentle rain from heaven? May we not be amongst the “Miserables” this season, but amongst the “Misericordieux, the Merciful Ones”. Watch the play, it that helps.
