Mercy is one of the most important gifts of the gospels, such is so, that to the mercy corresponds his own beatitude: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy", Matthew 5:7. Mercy returns mercy. Mercy is a spiritual gift and a perfect or ethical virtue (Aristotle). Aristotle define mercy as ethical friendship.
Mercy is a quality of god and the highest virtue in his genre, is define as compassion, amability, affability, benedicence, benevolence. This spiritual gift is known as "imitate God" or "imitate Jesus". Jesus expresses it in the gospel as follows: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful", Luke 6:36.
Mercy is a gift of the will along with piety (constancy, firmness, devotion), continuous improvement (virtue of fortitude with progressive thinking) and righteousness (golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", Matthew 7:12).
Mercy is the path to Gnosis and spiritual enlightenment, so we can see this, in the graph:
There are many parables or stories from Jesus that remind us that mercy is lived because we grow, like the parable of the good samaritan, Luke 10:25-37:
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by the other side. So too, a levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by the other side. But a samarithan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandage him wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them into the innkeeper. "Look after him" he said, "and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have"
Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
For more information, visit my profile, follow the link, and download for free my ebook.