In the eighth grade Mrs. Emerson made us memorize these lines from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice: 

   "The quality of mercy is not strained;/ 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…" 

   Wise person, Mrs. Emerson. She hoped we would remember these golden lines about mercy (as clearly I do nearly sixty years later) & that we would absorb the message.

   She also hoped we would carefully read the rest of the immortal lines including the ones that describe how mercy becomes the "throned monarch better than his crown" & that the scepter is merely a mortal symbol whereas mercy "is an attribute to God himself."

   A millennia & a half before Shakespeare, Jesus captured the transcendent power of mercy in a single story. His parable echoes through every loving heart & is endlessly portrayed – including in Morot's 19th century painting. Shouldering the wounded & naked "stranger" on his beast of burden is The Good Samaritan himself, the protagonist of the greatest parable of love in the history of the world.

   Who do you want as your neighbor? Jesus asks the lawyer after telling him the parable.

   We know the answer. We want the one who is merciful. We want the one who is kind. We want the one who lives love, not fear.

-Reverend Erie Chapman