The Power of Mercy in Desperate Times: The Story of a Pastor's Self-Sacrifice

INTRODUCTION

Some time ago, as health workers were celebrated all over the world during the life threatening COVID-19 pandemic, the stories that were reported every day in the media reminded me of the power of mercy. In a research project about mercy as one of the four key characteristics of Spirituality that I undertook some time ago, I came under the impression of its profound mystical meaning. The theoretical reflection of that project became vividly concrete through the life story of a saintly pastor that I discovered by chance in my reading. His story had a transformational impact on me as a gripping tale of someone who gave up the brightest of careers and a privileged life to serve his flock in a remote area of our land, ultimately giving up his own life for their sake during the Spanish flu in 1918-1919.¹ I read the reports about the health workers, recognising in them the same urge and desire to serve others with compassion and empathy as I discovered in his life. Their stories are the timeless tale of mercy as a beautiful spiritual power that helps one to defy the most extreme of dangers and to fear not death itself. It is a story that invites one to be merciful and inspires one to believe that hope is a reality in the most desperate of times.

Tobie Muller, the young pastor, was a highly gifted student, leader and a deeply spiritual person. Strong and beautiful in body, as photos of him reveal, he was even more imposing in spirit, mind and character.² As a result, he became a legend in his time, especially after giving his life literally in service of his flock during the utterly devasting flu pandemic in 1918 that claimed the lives of 50 million people worldwide. His life, snuffed out at the tender age of 34, was on the face of it quite ordinary and normal. He was a pastor, a happily married family man with two young children, in a rural community where he dutifully served his community. And yet, when he died, having contracted the flu, his seemingly ordinary life spoke of and reflected an extraordinary saintliness that reminds one of saints of the past, like Francis of Assisi, who renounced a privileged existence to live a life of mercy. On a deeper level, his life had a Christlike appearance, reflecting to its very bone, the heart of divine compassion. It is a saintliness in which one recognizes the divine presence that illustrates how and empowers one to live compassionately. His life reveals how beautiful, and even divine, human beings can be in the midst the darkness of suffering and crisis.

His story had a mystical quality, not only because of who he was, but also because of the transformative impact it had on many of his contemporaries, but also on me, and on my research: The beauty of his life pulls one into a different sphere, away from contingencies of time and space. It is the same type of experience that I have had in recent times when I follow the many holy stories about the sacrifices of health workers in the terrible crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. One stands in awe before the beauty of people who can give so selflessly and mercifully to those in need.

It is an experience that is even more special because it reminds one of the power of mercy—a motif that is not really attractive in our times. The divisions and hostility, the hateful relationships that permeate our culture, stand out in their mercilessness. One has the impression that our world and communities have become less merciful, and, even worse, intend and want to be less merciful.³ It is a spiritual quality that seems to have become increasingly neglected even among faith communities. To discover in such times stories about the redemptive, transformational impact of mercy, gives hope for the brokenness of our existence and the heartlessness of our present situation. It sounds a...