The Mercy Hug, Evangelization Without Words  

The Heart of Mercy in us can communicate without words! Of course in cultures where tactile expression is not permitted the Mercy Hug may not be an option, whereas other methods of evangelization can be used effectively.

Speaking can be a somewhat weak means of transmitting or communicating the Good News of Mercy. Perhaps you are thinking, «How can you say that?» Actually, I’m writing it without speaking. We are intrigued by a curious phenomenon that we have experienced the last few years; it is our subjective experience and not to be applied as “the” method of evangelization. Just taking someone in the arms attached to the Heart of God in us can bring about a very powerful encounter between the person and the Lord. The Heart of Mercy in us can communicate without words!

Often we are in a country where we do not speak the Language of the people. Therefore, instead of having someone translate for us we communicate by taking people in our arms for thirty seconds or more. This is done without squeezing them like a Russian bear would, nor by bouncing off them like off a trampoline, nor by tapping them on the back like you would a baby being burped. Rather we hold them with the tenderness with which the Mother held her Son after the crucifixion. Mary said nothing to Her Son; She simply and gently held him in the arms of Mercy.

As I write this I am sick with what they call a «little pneumonia». If this is little I wonder what the big one is like. We are in a country of South America where I understand little of the language. If I speak I cough rather violently. Therefore, in going door-to-door yesterday afternoon with two girls, I didn’t dare say a word. Taking one person in the arms of Mercy the person experienced a wonderful joy, another began to weep. A psychological technique? Ask your Heart!

The Heart can communicate very well without words. How encouraging to see the Lord touch people deeply just by taking them in a Mercy Hug. To see sadness changed into joy, hopelessness released into tears of peace. We may go back and visit these people whenever we like, without words.

After reflecting on it I think we have seen many more conversions through the Mercy Hug than through a multitude of well chosen words. Danelle converts me at the beginning of each day by taking me in her arms and holding me tenderly for a long moment when time and troubles and everything just has to wait. It is better than coffee to start the day. We don’t kiss or even look at each other. We just stand there for as long as our Hearts desire.

Once we gave our testimony before over twenty thousand youth. Six months later someone who had been present named Pablo told us that when we held each other in the Mercy Hug at the end of our testimony that he could not help but cry. He had looked around him and noticed that the youth around him were crying too. Another time someone said the best part of our testimony was the Hug. We could probably just stand there for twenty minutes locked in a Mercy Hug. When two Hearts touch it’s like elements coming together and the critical mass causes an explosion of Mercy affecting all the Hearts within seeing and feeling distance.

Everyone is a candidate for Evangelization in the arms of Mercy. One day I decided to Hug at least sixteen people. It was the day before my birthday. I easily got to sixteen, of which about thirteen were willing new candidates. I was parking the car at a restaurant and noticed that there was a woman parking her car behind me. I got out of the car and as I was starting toward the restaurant I thought, «Why not?» So, I walked up to her car and spoke through the open window. «Excuse me, I try to get sixteen hugs a day and I have already gotten sixteen but tomorrow is my birthday so I thought…» Her eyes said «yes» so I leaned in through the window and for a long moment she held me like I was her long lost brother. As I walked away I was very impressed by what had just happened. Two people who had never met, without words and without fear mutually touched the Merciful Heart of God.

And it works everywhere with almost everyone. In prisons, hospitals, at the new neighbors, meeting the president of a bank or the head of customs for a country. We even have a school which is based on going door-to-door and Evangelizing through the Mercy Hug. The world can be converted without words in the arms of Mercy.

The greatest need of every man, woman and child on earth can be reduced to three words. Man’s greatest need and desire is: to be held. To be held by God, Mary and the Church as well as by loving people. If we would hold people first instead of teaching them, then the teaching would find fertile soil in their Hearts. There are Catholics angry at the Church because they feel they never encountered the Church as an affectionate caring Mother. How many troubled households have we found where holding one another daily would resolve most of the conflicts! How many unfaithful spouses have abandoned their mates simply because they did not know how to hold and be held!

A family reunion at our house takes quite a while because everyone gives and gets a Mercy Hug. It takes time to greet someone by holding them. It is never too late to become the arms of Mercy to those you love and those you meet. My father-in-love is eighty-four and takes me in his arms and holds me until I let go. I hear horror stories of what might happen if you hug someone you don’t know. Perhaps it is true; but I have hugged people all over the world and can’t remember a bad experience. This is not cultural unless the culture referred to has incorporated the power of the Mercy Hug.

Someone easily held is easily healed. Someone who holds others easily is often in pretty good Mercy shape. Someone who holds you at arms length is often keeping you away from their wounded spirit. If you can tenderly get through the protective bubble then often Mercy flows easily to and from the person. When a person has held others off for a long time then that person has a lot of Mercy to be released through them. If the cork comes out then the Mercy flows like champagne. I am not sure how you are receiving this. Probably seems a little crazy. It probably is a little crazy. Put it in practice and come back and we will talk, or rather Hug, again!

The best Hug will be the one we get when we get Home. I saw an old faded black and white film in Spanish which illustrates this extremely well. The title is After the Promise. It is the true story of a family which lived in the U.S. during the «Great Depression» years of the 1930’s. They have four young boys and the mother is very sick. The father is very close to his oldest son. The mother dies and they take the four boys away from the man and put them in a home for mentally ill children.

For several years things are unbearably terrible for the father and the boys. Life is unbearable in the orphanage to say the least. The father loves the boys very much and tries to no avail to get them back. The boys try to escape but are caught and cruelly treated. The older boy is brutally beaten, closes his wounded Heart and is put in an institution for the severely retarded.

The father remarries after a few years and has a wonderful wife with whom he has a daughter. Things work out well for them and after having worked very hard they build a house. His promise to his deceased first wife is to never stop seeking to get the boys back. His new wife is totally in agreement and they eventually find three of the boys in the orphanage.

The reunion is difficult for they are deeply wounded because of the separation. One by one they reconcile with the father through much patience on his part. The father tries in vain to track down the whereabouts of the oldest son. He goes to the mental institution where in fact his son is «kept» but the doctor, though he is a good man, says that there is no one in the institution by that name. For the son does not remember where he came from. He is lost in his past. The father leaves terribly discouraged. But the good doctor begins to talk to the now teen age boy and the boy eventually finds in his Heart a memory that links him to his father. Remember, this is a true story!

The doctor calls the father and accepts to return the son to his true home. The last scene, even in black and white and projected on the wall, is very moving, at least it was for me. The car drives up to the house and the boy gets out with difficulty for his leg had been broken several years before by a beating. He limps around the car in a sort of daze. The trauma of years of separation and mistreatment have left him totally broken. His three brothers are waiting and run and take his hands, but his eyes are on the screen door of the house searching for his father. Their eyes meet and in one violent leap the father vaults down the stairs. As he plunges toward his son, from the depths of his innermost Heart flows the name of his son in a long joyfully anguished cry continuing all the way into the embrace of long separated love. And the true name of the son, «Riiiiicccchhhaaarrrddd»

The last Mercy Hug will be the best because you will be in the arms of the Father. Like the sheep in the arms of the Shepherd, you know you are okay now, safe and sound where you were made to be.