Part of the 'What every Catholic should know' series. What every Catholic should know examines the often-misunderstood concept of mercy. The word “mercy" appears 250 times in the Old Testament, making it the fourth most used noun after God/Lord, soul, and land. God's mercy is intimately woven into both Testaments. God's mercy is not what we expect it to be. Partially, that is because mercy itself is not what we expect it to be. If we think we understand what mercy is, then we think we know what the Church means when it says that God is merciful. Jesus tells us that our mercy should be measured by God's mercy (Luke 6:36), which means that our misunderstandings about God's mercy will also affect whether we live out our Catholic Faith as Jesus commands. Once we address these misunderstandings, we can better live as God, in his love and wisdom, commands us to.