The works of mercy toward the body and soul. History and practice

Abstract

The Church made assisting the poor and needy an important part of its mission, as a response to an explicit command to enact the commandment to love one’s neighbor given by Christ. The obligation to show an active love of neighbor is expressed in the catechism formula of works of mercy toward the body and soul. The article analyzes both the genesis of this formula, as well as its historical interpretation over the centuries.
The corporal works of mercy have been clearly stated by Christ Himself in the context of the teaching of the last judgment recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 25:31–40, however the spiritual works of mercy find their biblical justification in different places of the Gospels. In III century Origen in the spirit of allegorical exegesis interpreted the works of mercy mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew also as a call to help in the spiritual needs of man, and after him St. Augustine in the West. In this way, gradually the list of seven works of mercy concerning the soul was established.
St. Thomas Aquinas gave us the classical moral interpretation of the acts of mercy, establishing the conditions under which they are a strict moral obligation. I the later period in the practice of charity stressed the elements such as: a personal experience of God’s mercy as a call to help others (St. Faustina), valuing man in his dignity (St. John Paul II) and recentely a concern for people excluded or deprived of opportunities of self-development (Pope Francis).