Mercy is always a gift, and it is always about the restoration of community, whether that’s a community of two or twenty or ten million.
There is a kinship at the very heart of the world, at the very beginning of the story, yoking us together for better or for worse.
Instead of grasping vertically toward the heavens, the people reach out horizontally by listening and talking to each other. Much like a jazz group, they play off each other. They build note by note, riff by riff, toward the ultimate reunion of all humanity with one another and with God.
When Jesus found fearful people huddled in locked upper rooms or on hillsides staring at the sky, he sent them right back down into the city. Right back into the liturgy of life in this world that he so loves. The incarnate liturgy in which his holy and life-giving Spirit is still to be found.