In Lord Jesus’ beatitudes, He said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

Mercy is the crux of Christianity and without mercy people are bereft of love and compassion, whereas life becomes rough and merciless. Mercy breeds love and care. It instills in humans the divine nature of love.

In a parable which Lord Jesus gave, He said, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat…” it continues, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” This parable further exacerbates Lord Jesus’ teaching that our purpose in life is to extend all possible help to the needy including feeding them.

Days ago in Turkey, Assyrian monk Fr. Aho gave a piece of bread to two people who had turned up at the gates of his monastery complaining that they were hungry and had nothing to eat for some time.  In compliance with the teachings of the Holy Bible, Fr. Aho gave them food. Following this incident he stood trial and was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison on the pretext that gave food to terrorists.

Fr. Aho did not question the identity of the two hungry people. All he cared for was feeding hungry people and hoping to spread the message of love, to share the miseries of others, as well as to spread the message of compassion and mercy.

Even had Fr. Aho known that these people were terrorists or rather enemies, he would have fed them based on the teachings of Lord Jesus “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

The world has been going through successive stages of wars and violence leading to agony, famine, hatred, and a state of despair. It is due time to turn our backs to all kinds of man-made evil and extend a helping hand to others in the hope of entrenching  global peace, harmony, and common living so that the inhabitants of our globe may live in peace and prosperity.