“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” - and in short: “Lord, have mercy!” from apostolic times it was given to Christians, and it was determined that they should constantly proclaim this, as they do. However, when doing this, very few people know what it means: “Lord, have mercy!” Therefore they cry in vain; They cry out: “Lord, have mercy!”, but they do not receive the Lord’s mercy, because they themselves do not know what they are looking for.
Therefore, we must know what kind of mercy this is from the Lord Jesus.
Which?! - Anything: everything that we need in our present fallen state is in His right hand. For He, from the moment He incarnated and became a man, from the moment He endured such passions and through the outpouring of His all-holy Blood redeemed man from the hands of the devil, from that time on He became the Lord and Ruler of human nature in a special way. All of ours has become in His hands.
The Lord, even before the incarnation, from the beginning, was the Lord of all creatures - visible and invisible - as their Creator and Creator. According to existence, this is how it is, and will be - but not according to the free activity of rational creatures. The demons, and after them people, did not want to have Him as their Lord and Ruler - and they tore themselves away from Him, the Lord of all. For the all-good God, having created people and Angels as autocratic and endowed them with reason, does not want to violate this autocracy and rule over them by force, against their will. Therefore, those of them who want to be under the power and control of God - He rules over those and protects those, and those who do not want - He leaves them to do their will, as autocratic. Therefore, Adam, when he, seduced by the apostate devil, himself became an apostate from God and did not want to obey His commandments, God left him to his will, not wanting to rule over him.
But the envious devil, who deceived man at the beginning, did not stop further deceiving him until, through his foolishness, he made him like beasts, senseless, and he began to live like unreasonable animals.
Then the most merciful God took pity on him and, bending the heavens, descended to earth and became a Man, for man’s sake, and having redeemed him with His Most Pure Blood, arranged for him a saving path of life: in the Holy Gospel he showed how to please God, with Divine baptism he revived and recreated him, in the Most Pure Mysteries he established heavenly nourishment and, in short, with the highest wisdom he found a way to please God. to be inseparable from man and man from God, so that the devil no longer has a place in man. But even after this, He still does not force anyone, but leaves everyone to their own devices to be saved, as they are offered, or to perish. This is how it goes: some are saved, while others neglect salvation - some of whom do not believe in the Gospel at all, and others believe, but do not live according to the Gospel.
Those Christians who, after so many gifts of grace, after so many good deeds of God, were again seduced by the devil and, through the action of the world and the flesh, alienated themselves from God and fell under the yoke of slavery to sin and the devil, doing his will, but not yet completely insensitive, so as not to feel the evil that they suffered, but understand their mistake and recognize the slavery to which they fell, but have the strength to get rid of it, in They don’t see it for themselves - they run to God and cry out: “Lord, have mercy,” so that the most merciful Lord may take pity on them and have mercy on them, so that He accepts them like the prodigal son, and again gives them His Divine grace, and returns them freedom, so that they can henceforth live pleasing to God and keep the commandments of God.
So, those Christians who cry out for this purpose: “Lord, have mercy!” - they will certainly be worthy of God’s mercy and receive grace to free themselves from slavery to sin and be saved.
Those who do not have the above thoughts at all and are not aware of the misery of their situation and their enslavement to the will of the flesh and worldly customs, and do not even have time to think about their slavery, but without any such goal, out of habit alone cry out: “Lord, have mercy!” - How can these receive God’s mercy, and especially such wondrous and immeasurable mercy? For such people, it is better not to receive it than, having received it, to lose it again, because this would be a double sin.
I'll explain it to you with examples. Imagine a poor and beggarly person who wants to receive alms from one of the rich. What does he say when he comes to the rich man? - Nothing but: “Have mercy on me!” Take pity on my poverty and improve my life.” Or someone has a debt and has no means to pay it off and, wanting to get rid of this burden, comes to the decision: to beg the one to whom he owes it, to forgive him the debt. He comes to this conclusion - and what does he say? Just the same: “Have mercy on me!” Have pity on my poverty and forgive me the debt I owe you.” Likewise, when someone is guilty of something to another and wants to receive forgiveness from him, what does he do? He comes to the one he sinned against and says: “Have mercy on me! Forgive me for what I have sinned against you.”
All such people know what they are asking for and why they are asking, and they receive according to the request according to the circumstances, and they use what they receive for their own benefit.
Now put on the other side a sinner who is spiritually poor, and is in debt to God, and has offended Him many times. If he cries out as if to God: “Have mercy on me!” - and yet he doesn’t understand what he’s saying and why he’s saying it, he doesn’t even know what the mercy he wants to receive from God is, and why it’s useful, but simply out of habit calls out: “Lord, have mercy!” - then how will God give him mercy when he cannot even recognize what he has received, and therefore will not pay attention to it and will abuse it, or destroy it, and even more so become a sinner?
The mercy of God is nothing more than the grace of the Holy Spirit, which we, sinners, must ask from God, constantly crying to Him: “Have mercy on me! Show Thy mercy, my Lord, to me, a sinner, in the pitiful state in which I find myself, and accept me again into Thy grace. Give me the spirit of strength so that it strengthens me in resisting the temptations of the devil and my bad sinful habits; give me the spirit of advice, so that I may become wise, come to my senses and correct myself; give me the spirit of fear, so that I will be afraid to offend You and fulfill Your commandments; give me the spirit of love, so that I love You and no longer move away from You; give me the spirit of peace, so that I may keep my soul peaceful, gather all my thoughts and remain silent and silent in thoughts; give me the spirit of purity, may it keep me clean from all defilement; give me the spirit of meekness, that I may be quiet in my dealings with my Christian brothers and refrain from anger; give me the spirit of humility, so that I may not think highly of myself and may not be proud.”
Who knows and feels how necessary everything that has been said is, and, asking for it from the most merciful God, cries out: “Lord, have mercy!” - he will probably receive what he asks for, and will be worthy of God’s mercy and His grace. But who does not know anything of what we have said, and only out of habit cries out: “Lord, have mercy!” - there is no way for him to receive mercy from God. For even before he had already received many mercy from God, but he did not know it and did not thank God for giving it to him. He received God's mercy when he was created and became a man; received mercy when he was recreated in baptism and became an Orthodox Christian; received mercy when he got rid of so many troubles, mental and physical, that he experienced in life; received God’s mercy every time he was worthy to partake of the Most Pure Mysteries; received God’s mercy every time I sinned before God and upset Him with my sins, and was not destroyed and punished, as was proper; I received God’s mercy when I received many benefits from God, but I either did not realize it or forgot.
How else can such a Christian receive mercy from God when he does not know and does not feel that he has received so many mercies from Him? And now, even if he cries out: “Lord, have mercy!” - he does not know what he is saying, and pronounces these words without any thought or purpose, according to custom alone.
(Philokalia, vol. 5. pp. 447-451)