The knee jerk notion of “mercy” and “compassion” in the workplace would most likely be the scenario of firing someone and having a change of heart “Have mercy on meeeeeeee!!!!” which may (or may not) turn out to be disastrous for the office in the long run. But “mercy” in the workplace need not be that dramatic. When you bring into your profession the wholeness of your being, you bring into the workplace the kindness and justice that the love of Christ brings. Rather than seeing workers as a means to an end, a thoroughly replaceable entity by an entirely more efficient alternative/robot, you regard those around you as human beings and you set goals and targets which allow them to move into achieving the fullness of their aspirations. A good example of this would be a story I heard recently wherein the job for a hospital janitor entailed “mopping, cleaning, and disinfecting the floors”. When reprimanded for not doing his job by helping the elderly get on and off the bed, for singing to the bandaged blind patients who could not fall sleep, for taking the time to make the sick children laugh – his response was “yes I do mop, clean, and disinfect the floors, but my job is to make sure that I provide the environment so that the patients get better.” It was a man of mercy who must have hired the janitor, briefed him, and set him loose on the workplace – a janitor, a human being on fire to help others get better.
Santuario de San Antonio Parish 