---
title: "What are the works of mercy?"
url: "https://seekabove.com/answers/what-are-the-works-of-mercy"
description: "The works of mercy are concrete, practical ways of loving our neighbour — putting charity into action. There are two sets: the corporal works, which care for people’s bodily needs (feeding the hungry…"
published: "2026-06-06"
updated: "2026-06-06"
category: "Christian Life"
scripture: ["Matthew 25:35-40", "Isaiah 58:6-7", "James 2:14-17", "Tobit 1:16-17", "Luke 6:36"]
catechism: "CCC 1473, 2443–2447"
---

# What are the works of mercy?

## Short answer

The works of mercy are concrete, practical ways of loving our neighbour — putting charity
into action. There are two sets: the **corporal** works, which care for people's bodily
needs (feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned), and
the **spiritual** works, which care for people's hearts and souls (comforting, counselling,
forgiving, instructing). Together they answer the question, "What does love actually *do*?"

## Full explanation

Christianity is not a religion of nice feelings; it insists that love takes flesh in
action. The works of mercy are the Church's time-tested list of what that looks like in
practice — drawn straight from Scripture, especially Jesus' own picture of the final
judgement, where what counts is whether we fed the hungry, welcomed the stranger, and
visited the prisoner — and where he says that in doing so to "the least of these," we did
it to *him*.

The **corporal (bodily) works of mercy** care for physical needs:

1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty
3. Clothe the naked
4. Shelter the homeless
5. Visit the sick
6. Visit the imprisoned (and ransom the captive)
7. Bury the dead

The **spiritual works of mercy** care for the needs of the heart, mind, and soul:

1. Instruct the ignorant (share truth and faith with those who lack it)
2. Counsel the doubtful
3. Admonish sinners (gently help someone turn from harm)
4. Bear wrongs patiently
5. Forgive offences
6. Comfort the afflicted
7. Pray for the living and the dead

Notice how *ordinary* most of these are. They're not heroic feats reserved for saints and
specialists; they're things almost anyone can do almost any day — bringing a meal, sitting
with someone who's grieving, forgiving a slight, being patient with a difficult person,
praying for someone, gently telling a hard truth in love. The genius of the list is that it
keeps "love your neighbour" from staying a warm abstraction. It hands you a checklist for
charity.

The two sets belong together. It's possible to care for souls while ignoring bodies (pious
words to a hungry person, as James scorns) or to care for bodies while ignoring souls
(meeting material needs but never the deeper hunger for meaning, truth, and God). Real
mercy, like Jesus', tends to the whole person.

These works are also how faith is *kept alive and proven real*. James is blunt: faith
without works is dead. The works of mercy aren't how we earn God's love — that's a free
gift — but they're the natural fruit of having received it, and the very things Jesus says
he'll look for.

## Why this matters

It's easy to reduce religion to beliefs and feelings, or to wait for some grand way to
"make a difference." The works of mercy puncture both excuses: love is meant to be *done*,
and it's usually done in small, unglamorous, immediate ways, with the people right in front
of you. They're also a reliable cure for a faith that has gone abstract or self-absorbed —
pick one work and actually do it, and the gospel comes back to life.

## Common misunderstanding

One misunderstanding is treating mercy as only material aid (the corporal works), forgetting
the spiritual works — or vice versa, treating it as only "saving souls" while ignoring
bodily need. Both belong. Another is thinking these are tasks for professionals or saints;
in fact they're ordinary actions meant for every Christian, every day.

## Scripture connections

- **Matthew 25:35-40** — Jesus' judgement scene and the source of the corporal works: "I
  was hungry and you gave me food… you did it to me."
- **Isaiah 58:6-7** — true fasting is sharing bread with the hungry and sheltering the
  homeless.
- **James 2:14-17** — faith without works is dead; you can't bless a hungry person and
  give them nothing.
- **Tobit 1:16-17** — an Old Testament model of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and
  burying the dead.
- **Luke 6:36** — "be merciful, just as your Father is merciful," the heart of it all.

## Church teaching references

- CCC 2447, 2443, 2444, 2445, 2446, 1473
- The Catechism lists the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as charitable actions by
  which we help our neighbour in bodily and spiritual need.

## Reflection question

Pick one work of mercy from either list — is there a specific person you could actually do
it for this week, rather than leaving "love your neighbour" as a good intention?