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Episode 9 - Pity
Today's word is pity.
Pity, yes. Pity that does not exist in the Gospel, but it exists, because the Gospel
is the story of Zacheo, which shows Jesus having pity, I mean, from a certain point of view,
who has pity, and it appears in the text of the Book of Wisdom
which interprets this page of the Gospel, where the Book of Wisdom says: "Have pity
for everybody because you are the almighty".
So, it is the pity of God?
It is God. Yes. "Oh Lord, the whole world is in front of you like dust, but have pity for everyone
because you are the almighty". So..
How do you say pity?
It actually is a verb, to compassionate, and it is the verb that sometime we also hear
during liturgies, in one of those rare times in which it is used in its original version which is Elehein,
Eleheo.
Eleheison, that one?
EleElehein, Eleheison, Eleheison, Christe Kiri Eleheison Christeleison, etcetera.
And we translate it into?
Lord Pity. It actually is a translation... well, forget about it. I don't like the translation,
because it means something else.
I mean, Lord pity means forgiveness..
Yes, but it is not true. It is not true. Because to have pity does not mean mainly to forgive.
Then, maybe, we also have this meaning. But pity is another thing.
All right, so, what does actually pity mean, for example in comparison to mercy,
or to be moved?
As a fact, pity is the overflow of a fullness. It is the fact that God,
the book of Wisdom, says: " Lord, the whole world is in front of you as dust, but
have pity for everyone as you are the Almighty, and so then you can forgive the sins, close
your eyes in front of the sins of man and wait for their remorse. In fact you " it says "love
all the things that exist. " So, pity, above all, is the fullness, the totality,
the completeness of God which spills, which overflows on all men.
So, but then we cannot have pity.
We have pity only if it is given to us. In fact it is characteristic that in the New
Testament that word, the verb we are talking about, Elehein to have pity, is mainly used
in the invocations to God or to Jesus. The people who are asking miracles to Jesus and say:
"Sons of David, have pity, be compassionate". Or it is used in another famous text, which
are the Beatitudes: "Blessed be those who have pity, who have mercy because
they will find mercy". But even there, we always have to be careful
at the translation, ".. who have mercy, because they will find mercy". I mean, mercy is something
which derives from a preexistent mercy.
Yes, it's not that somebody has mercy and so I give him back mercy.
No, it is not like that.
Somebody can have mercy if he welcomes the mercy of God.
I mean, for example there is a fundamental difference in the lexicon in comparison to the compassion
that the good Samaritan has for the injured man.
Yes, which is not Eleheo.
Which is not Elehein, it is Splanknizein, which is a word that has to do with Isplankna, so
we have the bowels, isn't it? Which means, he is moved, he is..
touched..
It is an emotion. So, we could say that pity is an overflow of something more,
and emotion is to realize a common lack. So, God has pity
we can possibly have pity because a great pity has
spilled on us.
So in a certain sense, the emotion is to accept the pity of God and recognize
that we are poor like the others.
Right, right. And it is a characteristic fact that the mass, in the Roman rite, starts with the
Inola Misericordie, because the Kirie, we will never repeat it enough times, is not a
penitential act. Even if the liturgical reform in one of the possible forms, has made it a
penitential act, with a rather sensational interpretation and with incomprehension,
I think, of the meaning of this word, but the Kiri Eleheison is above all the acclamation
of the mercy of the present God.
It is for that reason that we also say it after the absolution.
We actually say it after the absolution.
That means that those who make it before do wrong.
It is a song of glory. They do wrong.. the missal allows it, if your insert a sentence, then
you don't do wrong, namely if you add some commentary sentences. So you don't do wrong,
but it was not born like this. It was born by the fact that we are in front of God and what is
the first thing that comes upon us? It is the fact that God is everything and we are nothing, so
he invests us of his mercy. "Oh Christ, have pity, oh Lord, have mercy,
give us mercy". It was the acclamation that they used to do when the emperor appeared to ask
for the liberation of the prisoners, to ask the emperor to give money to the poor,
so he who is everything, who has all the power, has to give. And the Christians refer it to
Christ.