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JAITIES F. KEENAHIs there something about Catholicmorality that distinguishes it fromthe morality of other religious be.lievers? This is a vexing question.Ifs not a question about superiori-ty.It's simply a question aboutdistinctiveness or uniqueness. If sa question about identity, aboutwhat identifies us as Catholic inour moral lives.The question is vexing because itis difficult to find any one thingthat belongs to Catholics asCatholics. For instance, weCatholics appreciate the naturallaw, but, in Romans 1, Saint Paulwrites that the natural.law is writ-ten in everyone's heart; by thatlaw, people can tell right fromwrong. Many Catholics believe(rightly) that what is right forCatholics is right for everyone andwhatever is wrong for Catholics isequally wrong for everyone.Others toot our moralify in theScriptures. Here we think, natural-Iy, of the Ten Commandments,which are shared withlews,Protestants, and the Orthodox.Thafs not terribly distinctive.Moreover, the commandments arepretty comprehensive. From themwe receive moral guidance regard-ing the sovereignty of God andGod's name; worship; honoringparents; cherishing life, our bod-ies, and the truth; respectingneighbors, their families, and theirproperty. The commandmentscover most moral topics.Deppite the fact that the naturallaw provides all humanbeings ac-cess to the same moral standardsand that the Ten Commandmentsof:fer those of us in the |udeo-Christian tradition a fundamentalmorality that has affected the

foundations of morality through-out the Western world, still,Imust say unequivocally: WeCatholics have defined ourselvesdistinctively in our moral lives.That distinctiveness is found inthe virtue of mercy.While Protestants recognize theexbaordinary importance ofmercy as the basic stance of ourGod toward us, still we Catholicshave taken that insight further interms of a long legacy of the cor-poral and spiritual works ofmercy. Those works have distin'guished us, for if one dimension ofthe Christian tradition differenti-ates Protestants from Catholics, itis precisely, "works."As I have written in this columnon the virfues and the command-ments/ two extraordina"ily impor-tant influences on Catholicmorality, now I want to,begin ad-dressing the influence of theworks of merry both on our tradi-tion and on our contemporarylives. I do this because the tradition of the works of merry is pow-erfully rich, yet considerably lostto the modern mind. U we wantto know more about what Godasks of us today then, assuredly itis the practice of mercy.Mercy in Catholic kaditionTo malce ny casefor tlu distinctiae-ness of mucy,l want to cooer faurtopics. In nry ne# column I will giaeabrief histariulwetzimt of the badi-tion of the works of mucy and in sub-sequent columns I will discuss mch ofthe worlcs belout.Metcy the story of our salvationo Like Jesus, we must becomethe mercy of God. The GoodSamaritan parable definitively de-

fines "neighbor love" as the prac-tice of mercy. Recall whyleeustells this parable. He has just giventhe love commandment, and inre-sponse/ one of the Scribes askshim,'aVho is my neighbor?" jesustells the parable. A dose readingof it gives a very surprising an-swer to the question. Aren't we"thinking at the beginning of thestory that the answer to the ques-tion, "who is my neighbor?" willbe the tmnlyngwounded alongthe road. But ifs not. The answeris the Samaritan. The neighbor isthe one who shoars mercy.Given the sto4/s surprising end-ing, many of us forget that it is notprimarily a moral parable. Manygreat preachers and theologianssee in it the first story of our re.demption, told by Christ. For in-stance, Venerable Bede wrote thatthe wounded man who lies out-side the gates is Adam, woundedby rto, lying outside the gates ofEden. The priest and the Levite,representing the tradition and thelaw. are unable to do anything forAdam. Along comes the Samari-tan (Christ) who tends to Adam'swounds, takes him to the inn (thechurch), gives a down paymmt(his life) for Adam's healing or sal-vation, and promises to rehrrn forhim (to pay in full the cost of redemption).Understood in this way, the para-ble is less a story about how weshould treat others than it is thestory of what Christ has done forus. We are called to follow the ac-tions of the Good Samaritan, notbecause the parable is attractivebut because it is a retelling of theentire gospel In it, we are calledto go and do likewise. Nor is theparable simply one among rnanythat lesus told. Rather, it senres asthe foundational explanation ofJesus' commandment to love.Mercy: the condition for salvation. To be saved, we mugt exercisemercy. My second point is that theScriptures definitively emphasize

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mercy as the cofidition for salva-tion. This is made clear in the Last|udgment (inMaithew 25), wherethose saved are saved simPlY ifthey performed what we latercalled tne corparal works ofmercy- feeding the hungrY, cloth-ing the naked, visiting the sick, ete.The parabie of Matthew 25 is strik-ing in that everyone is surPrised bYthe judgrnent. The sheep never re-alized that in feeding the hungr1r,they rvere feeding the king. Nordid the goats realize thai bY r,ctvisiting the sick, they were not vis-iting the Lord. But for the GosPelwritets, our recognition of the im-portance of rnercy is inconsequen-tial. That is also the "moral" erf thestory of the rich man who neversees poor Lazarus at his gate. Wewili be iudged by whether we aremercifirl {see Luke 5).Mercy: How God enters ourchaos to rescue us. We show mercy by enteringthe chaos of others. Our entiretheological tradition is expressedin terms of mercy, which i defineas the willingness to enter into thechaos of others. Indeeel, ilke theGood Samaritan stoPPing forwounded Adam, attending tosomeone in need is no simPle af-fair. It means entering into the en-tire "problem" 0r "chaos" of thatperson's particuiar situation.Understood in such terms, the cre-ation is an act of merry that bringsorder into the chaos af ihe uni-verse. The Incarnation is Cod'sentry into the chaos of human ex-istence. And tkre redernPtion isbringing us out of the chaos of ours1avery to sin. Every action cf Godis aimed at rescuing us.One of my favorite understandingsof God's rescue of us comes fromthe meditation on the Trinify in theSpiitunl Exercises of Saint lgnatius.The three persons of the blessedTrinity are considering the chaos ofthe world wherein most PeoPle aregoing to hell. TheY decide ihat we

must be saved. How? One of threepersorls will enter i:rto our lives tokeep us all from failing inio theabyss of heil, itseX pure chaos.Merey; Ctrristianity's se!f-definitianEarly Christianity defined itself interms of merc,v" In his wonderfulwork ?ae Rise of Christianifg,Rod-ney Stark argus that "Christianitywas an urban movement, and theNew Testament was set down bYurbanites." But those urban areaswere cireadf-*l. Stark describes th"econditions as "sociaL chacs andchronic urban misery," pa.rtlY be-cause of sheer popuiation density'At the end of the first century, Ar-ticch's population was 150,000within the city walls-l17 Personsper acre. New York City todaY hasa density of 37 persons Per acreoverall; Manhattan, with its high-rise apartments, registers 100 per-sons pel acre.Contrary io early assumPtions,Greco-Roman cities were not set-tied places, the inhabitants de-scended from pteviousgenerations. Given high infantmortality and short life expectanry,these cities required "a constantand substantial strearn of newcom-ers" simply to maintain pcpuiationievels. As a result, the cities weremade up of strangers. TheY werewell treated by Christians, trvho,again contrary to assumPtions,were anythingbut poor. Through a

ry that because Godloves humanitY, Christiansmay not piease God uniessthey loae one aflotLter was en-tirely new. PerhaPs evenmore revolutionary was theprinciple that Cfuistian lovelnd charity must extend be'yond the boundaries of fami-ly and tribe, that it mustextend to "a11 those who inevery place call on the nameof orrr Lord ]esus Christ" (1 -Cor. 1:2)... This was revolu-

variety of ways, financially secureChristians welcomed the newlY ar-rivecl immigrants. l6D (DMMAh}DD MCKCY 'Moteover, ChristianitY was new.INhile ethicai demands were im'posed by the gods of the Pagan re-ligicns, these demands weresubstantively ritualistic, not neigh-bor-directed. And, while PaganRornans knew generositY, it didnot stem frorn any divine com-mand. Thus a nurse who cared fora victim of an epidemic knew thather liJe might be lcst. If she were apagan, there was no exPectation ofdivine reward for her generositY;if she rvere a Christian, this lifewas but a prelude to the next,where the generous were unitedwith God.Although the Romans Practicedgenerosity, they did not Promotemercy or pity. Since merry im-plied "unearned help or relief," itwas considered contradictory tojustice. Roman philoscphers oP-posed mercy. According to Stark,"Pity was a defect of character un-wo*hy of the wise and excusableonly in those who have not Yetgrown up. It was an imPuisive re-sponse based on ignorance"' Heconcludes:fhis was the moral climatein which ChristianitY taughtthat merry is one of the Pri-mary virtues-that a merci-ful God requires humans to

be mercifrrl. Moreover, the

tionary stuff. lndeed, it wasthe crrltural basis for the re-vitaiization of a Romanworld groaning under a hostof miseries.

in our own day, mercy makes noless a claim.

Reverend James F. Keenan, s.J., lscssaciate professar of maral theologyat'Neston Jesuit School of Theology'Cambridge, Masso.chusetts.