In this study day we will explore the Works of Mercy (Matthew 25: 35-40) and how they might help us encounter the Christ in the ‘ordinary’ world today.
God is revealed through the ordinary because God is at the very heart of every human experience. Through the creation of the world, through the Logos (Christ), to the incarnation of Jesus, God has demonstrated that he dwells with us, as Paul Tillich put it, ‘as the ground of our being.’ This divine gift of grace at the depths of our human existence is Christ’s identification with ‘the least’ (Matt 25: 40).
The liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez realized this when he wrote: ‘We find the Lord in our encounters with others, especially the poor, marginated [sic], and exploited ones. An act of love towards them is an act of love towards God.’ (Gutiérrez, 1988, 116) We do not therefore treat our neighbour as a means to an end, a means to receiving or invoking divine grace, but rather that the everyday encounter is made holy. It follows that we love and serve our neighbour for their own sake, as they do for us, and in so doing forget our own selfish concerns. Only then can the encounter be grace filled. As Benjamin Kautzer has suggested: ‘In these acts of attentive solidarity, we must instead learn to forget ourselves. In so doing, we to may find ourselves surprised for having encountered the mystery of Christ’ (Kautzer, 61).
The challenge that God’s work in the world sets for us, is how to tune into the music of God’s love, service, mercy, and justice.
Revd Prof Jonathan Arnold is Michael Ramsay Chair in Theology at the University of Kent (Professor of Faith, Culture and the Arts). He is also Executive Director of the Social Justice Network, Canterbury Diocese, which has a portfolio that evolves in response to times of crises and includes migration and refugees, social issues of debt, hunger, homelessness, modern slavery and exploitation, the rehabilitation of ex-offenders and rural justice.
Formerly he was Dean of Divinity and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and, before that, was Chaplain and Senior Research Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. During his time in Oxford he lectured, tutored and supervised in ecclesiastical history. Publications include The Everyday God: Encountering the Divine in the Works of Mercy (2024). His next book, In the Key of the Kingdom: Reflections on Faith through Music is out later this year.
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