Conscience at the Crossroads: Womb, Mercy and Creation

I did not intentionally set out to study the etymology of ‘Mercy’. The question came to me quietly, during a reading group conversation where we were speaking about mercy. A Syrian Jesuit, Mike Kassis, mentioned that in Arabic the word raḥma (رحمة) means mercy, and that it comes from raḥim (رحم), the womb. A Croatian Jesuit, Robert Mufić, agreed and added that in Hebrew we observe the same roots reḥem (רֶחֶם), womb and raḥamîm (רַחֲמִים), meaning mercy or compassion and also in Aramaic – the spoken language of Jesus – we notice the same root r-ḥ-m, with similar meanings: womb, tender mercy. For me this etymology seemed more than a coincidence, mercy and womb coming from the same word family.

            That short exchange stayed with me, unsettling something within me. I began to sense that this conversation had opened a new perspective for me, and yet it was also something that brought me to this crossroads of conscience. One path led to the way I had often heard mercy explained in Western theology while the other led back to the languages Jesus himself spoke and prayed and most importantly thought. This essay traces the path of my reflections.