Mercy Works Miracles

December 10: Friday of the Second Week of Advent, Year C2

Isaiah 48:17-19; Matthew 11:16-19

In Serabu, a village of Sierra Leone, people bathed, washed their clothes, and drank water all from the same sluggish creek, enduring without hope the sickness and death that often followed. Gerry learned about it while a patient of the Southern Eye Institute, a Catholic charitable foundation in Memphis that for twenty-five years has done eye surgeries in Serabu. Gerry formed members of her Presbyterian church into a 24/7 prayer team, raised $75,000, and dug nine clean water wells in Serabu; and Southern Eye hired a local nurse to give ongoing sanitation instruction. Shortly afterward, water-borne cholera ravaged Sierra Leone. There was not one case in Serabu. Another example of the never-ending miracle of mercy.

The afflicted and needy seek water. “I, the LORD... will not forsake them. I will turn...the dry ground into springs of water.”

Which is a greater work of God: to produce miraculous wells, or to move human hearts to such mercy that they raise money and send members to Africa to dig them? Every act of mercy is a miracle, because it is an act of divine love. We can all work miracles. All we have to do is open our eyes to those in need, open our hearts in love, and open, yes, our purses or calendars when God moves us to action.

Daily Practice: Let God’s mercy work miracles through you.

Advent Prayer: Lord, use me!