Where Mercy and Truth Meet

 Published in the JagWire, Mercy Academy's alumni magazine.

On September 22, we celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the anniversary of the day in 1827 on which Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, opened the first “House of Mercy” in Dublin, Ireland.  Mercy Academy observed the day with a scholarship reception, a tribute to three of our Sisters of Mercy, and mass presided by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz.

In his homily, the archbishop recalled one of the most beautiful lines from scripture, Psalm 85:11, “Mercy and truth have met each other; justice and peace have kissed.”  Other renditions of the first part of the verse have, “where mercy and truth meet.”

That phrase would make a fitting motto for Mercy Academy. Before all of our wonderful academic, athletic, artistic and service programs, we are a “school of mercy.”  A place where we learn to forgive each other, to teach each other, to counsel, correct, and accept,  to be patient when we are wronged, to heal each other’s hurts, and to pray for each other.  In short, do the works of mercy.        

We give witness to the truth of a God who came to suffer with us.  Who took human form to be amongst us to teach us how to be more like God in midst of the trials of the world.

 In my ten years at Mercy, I have accompanied a distressing number of students at funerals for Mercy parents and students.  I have always been amazed at the way that our students console each other.   They have an instinctive ability to comfort.  In their actions, they demonstrate the school of mercy at work, testifying to the truth of Christ who is our comfort.  These girls embody the spirit of Catherine’s first house of mercy, caring for those who are suffering and in need.

Our school has changed in many ways since its foundation in 1885. A yearbook photo of our faculty from 1955 shows 20 Sisters of Mercy in full habit and two laywomen.  Today, that situation has more than reversed itself.  All of our faculty and staff, save one volunteer, are lay people. We are, in some ways, the new sisters, carrying on the vision of Catherine McAuley.

Catherine’s original mission was not to create a new religious order but to send out secular women into the world to have serve the poor: to shed light into the dark alleys of Dublin, care for women on the margins, and adopt abandoned children.  They were to bring human touch and the presence of Christ to the forgotten. 

The spirit of Mercy continues, though the number of sisters has declined.  Our graduates, students, and faculty and staff carry on our great tradition.  We remember the words of Proverbs: “Do not let mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Proverbs 3:3).