"An Earth community being shattered by displacement": Mercy perspectives

The newly established Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea has taken as its current focus “extravagant hospitality, compassion and justice in the Earth community being shattered by displacement.” Using a feminist and ecological interpretive lens, this article examines the biblical impetus for such a stance, especially as expressed in Luke’s gospel. At the beginning of his ministry, the Lukan Jesus proclaims release for the oppressed (4:18), literally those who are broken or shattered. Jesus embodies God’s extravagant hospitality and mercy for those who are shattered and broken by the structures, laws and socio-political interactions of their first-century world. The Earth community today, shaped by different structures, laws and socio-political interactions, is being broken and shattered in unprecedented ways. In this article, biblical perspectives on hospitality, compassion, and mercy are brought into dialogue with the displacement of the Earth community.