In the gospel we are reminded that without Christ each of us is lost and broken and without hope not only because of hard things that have happened to us but because of our own desire to live without God.  We have received comfort from the unearned favor of our God.  We must offer that comfort to others.  We have received mercy from the hand of God.  We will be God’s hands of mercy to the broken.  We will live lives of inconvenience if it means that one person will trust in God’s mercy for his or her salvation, because someone once inconvenienced his or herself and spoke living words to each of us.  We will work for justice for the powerless, and we will offer hope to the hopeless both spiritually and physically.  Through community involvement we become tools of change in our neighborhoods, our communities and eventually the world.