“‘I’m all out of darts of love, kid; all I have left are shafts of justice.’ Each semester the philosophy classes of Fr. A.C. Fabian, O.P., included the same inimitable exhortation to pursue excellence, right up through the final exam. ‘Half-time heroes’ he would say ‘can be end-of-the-game zeroes.’ Then, with a gleam in his eye only he was capable of mustering, he would continue, ‘I don’t want any of you showing up in my office whining: ‘Oh come on, Father, gimme a break’ [he made whining sounds, too, naturally]. I just might look at you and say, ‘I’m all out of darts of love, kid; all I have left are shafts of justice.’’
“We, his students, all knew Father was entirely capable of serving up shafts of justice on quizzes, exams or report cards. Admittedly his rock-star status was partly earned by his unmatched eccentricities (the sweaters, the recitation of class roll-call from memory, the phone call if you were absent, the ‘optional, informal review sessions’, the dreaded ‘see me, please’), but in fact something much deeper drew us to him. Despite his emphasis on justice in the classroom, the goodness Father Fabian showed to us as our priest (hearing our confessions, listening to our rants, and drying our tears) revealed that he also embodied that other, even greater virtue: mercy.
“For many of us, mercy is a word we toss around lightly, recognizing in it vaguely religious connotations. We associate it with nondescript acts of kindness or a nebulous feeling of sympathy. But as Pope Francis exemplifies in word and deed, there’s more to mercy than Hallmark sentiments.”
In a recent commentary, Brother Patrick Mary Briscoe, O.P. reflected on the gift of mercy and its role in evangelization.
To access Br. Patrick Mary’s complete post, please visit:
Dominicana: Pope Francis’s Key Virtue for the New Evangelization (24 JAN 14)
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