The Quality of Mercy

From Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

PORTIA: 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:
'Tis 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;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

On Death

I was reading Chapter 13, Our Eternal Destiny, in The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. (2006). Washington, D.C. : United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This is a more specialized cathechism, based on the CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church), which I actually read cover to cover about 6 years ago.

Here is a quote: "We do not like to think about death." It goes on to outline the beliefs of the Catholic Church.

About twenty minutes later, I received an email from a high school friend about the death of his brother. He was fifty four, had surgery to replace a knee and died from a heart attack that was probably related to clots in his lungs. His funeral would be in two days in a city about an hour from where I lived.

We hear about death all the time; murders, suspected murders, deaths from natural disasters, illness, accident, natural causes, deaths in war , and the death of people we know. Occasionally, we hear about the death of a family member or someone whose death impacts our lives in a dramatic way, e.g. the assassination of President Kennedy or 9/11.

Pope John Paul II coined the term "the culture of death" because of the declining respect for human life, most notably in abortion and euthanasia.

I must admit, going to mass once a week and repeating the creed goes along way, for me, to light a candle in the darkness that seems to surround us. And it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.