Catholic Faith
Legion of Mary
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Dives in misericordia
1980.11.30
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Blessing
Venerable Brothers and dear sons and daughters,
greetings and the apostolic blessing.
I. HE WHO SEES ME SEES THE FATHER (cf. John 14:9)
1. The Revelation of Mercy
It is "God, who is rich in mercy" 1 whom Jesus Christ has revealed to
us as Father: it is His very Son who, in Himself, has manifested Him
and made Him known to us.2 Memorable in this regard is the moment when
Philip, one of the twelve Apostles, turned to Christ and said: "Lord,
show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied"; and Jesus replied:
"Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me...? He who
has seen me has seen the Father."3 These words were spoken during the
farewell discourse at the end of the paschal supper, which was followed
by the events of those holy days during which confirmation was to be
given once and for all of the fact that "God, who is rich in mercy, out
of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead
through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."4
Following the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and paying close
attention to the special needs of our times, I devoted the encyclical
Redemptor hominis to the truth about man, a truth that is revealed to
us in its fullness and depth in Christ. A no less important need in
these critical and difficult times impels me to draw attention once
again in Christ to the countenance of the "Father of mercies and God of
all comfort."5 We read in the Constitution Gaudium et spes: "Christ the
new Adam...fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his lofty
calling," and does it "in the very revelation of the mystery of the
Father and of his love."6 The words that I have quoted are clear
testimony to the fact that man cannot be manifested in the full dignity
of his nature without reference - not only on the level of concepts but
also in an integrally existential way - to God. Man and man's lofty
calling are revealed in Christ through the revelation of the mystery of
the Father and His love.
For this reason it is now fitting to reflect on this mystery. It is
called for by the varied experiences of the Church and of contemporary
man. It is also demanded by the pleas of many human hearts, their
sufferings and hopes, their anxieties and expectations. While it is
true that every individual human being is, as I said in my encyclical
Redemptor hominis, the way for the Church, at the same time the Gospel
and the whole of Tradition constantly show us that we must travel this
day with every individual just as Christ traced it out by revealing in
Himself the Father and His love.7 In Jesus Christ, every path to man,
as it has been assigned once and for all to the Church in the changing
context of the times, is simultaneously an approach to the Father and
His love. The Second Vatican Council has confirmed this truth for our
time.
The more the Church's mission is centered upon man-the more it is, so
to speak, anthropocentric-the more it must be confirmed and actualized
theocentrically, that is to say, be directed in Jesus Christ to the
Father. While the various currents of human thought both in the past
and at the present have tended and still tend to separate theocentrism
and anthropocentrism, and even to set them in opposition to each other,
the Church, following Christ, seeks to link them up in human history,
in a deep and organic way. And this is also one of the basic
principles, perhaps the most important one, of the teaching of the last
Council. Since, therefore, in the present phase of the Church's history
we put before ourselves as our primary task the implementation of the
doctrine of the great Council, we must act upon this principle with
faith, with an open mind and with all our heart. In the encyclical
already referred to, I have tried to show that the deepening and the
many-faceted enrichment of the Church's consciousness resulting from
the Council must open our minds and our hearts more widely to Christ.
Today I wish to say that openness to Christ, who as the Redeemer of the
world fully reveals man himself," can only be achieved through an ever
more mature reference to the Father and His love.
2. The Incarnation of Mercy
Although God "dwells in unapproachable light,"8 He speaks to man he
means of the whole of the universe: "ever since the creation of the
world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has
been clearly perceived in the things that have been made."9 This
indirect and imperfect knowledge, achieved by the intellect seeking God
by means of creatures through the visible world, falls short of "vision
of the Father." "No one has ever seen God," writes St. John, in order
to stress the truth that "the only Son, who is in the bosom of the
Father, he has made him known."10 This "making known" reveals God in
the most profound mystery of His being, one and three, surrounded by
"unapproachable light."11 Nevertheless, through this "making known" by
Christ we know God above all in His relationship of love for man: in
His "philanthropy."12 It is precisely here that "His invisible nature"
becomes in a special way "visible," incomparably more visible than
through all the other "things that have been made": it becomes visible
in Christ and through Christ, through His actions and His words, and
finally through His death on the cross and His resurrection.
In this way, in Christ and through Christ, God also becomes especially
visible in His mercy; that is to say, there is emphasized that
attribute of the divinity which the Old Testament, using various
concepts and terms, already defined as "mercy." Christ confers on the
whole of the Old Testament tradition about God's mercy a definitive
meaning. Not only does He speak of it and explain it by the use of
comparisons and parables, but above all He Himself makes it incarnate
and personifies it. He Himself, in a certain sense, is mercy. To the
person who sees it in Him - and finds it in Him - God becomes "visible"
in a particular way as the Father who is rich in mercy."13
The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the
past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude
from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.
The word and the concept of "mercy" seem to cause uneasiness in man,
who, thanks to the enormous development of science and technology,
never before known in history, has become the master of the earth and
has subdued and dominated it.14 This dominion over the earth, sometimes
understood in a one - sided and superficial way, seems to have no room
for mercy. However, in this regard we can profitably refer to the
picture of "man's situation in the world today" as described at the
beginning of the Constitution Gaudium et spes. Here we read the
following sentences: "In the light of the foregoing factors there
appears the dichotomy of a world that is at once powerful and weak,
capable of doing what is noble and what is base, disposed to freedom
and slavery, progress and decline, brotherhood and hatred. Man is
growing conscious that the forces he has unleashed are in his own hands
and that it is up to him to control them or be enslaved by them."15
The situation of the world today not only displays transformations that
give grounds for hope in a better future for man on earth, but also
reveals a multitude of threats, far surpassing those known up till now.
Without ceasing to point out these threats on various occasions (as in
addresses at UNO, to UNESCO, to FAO and elsewhere), the Church must at
the same time examine them in the light of the truth received from God.
The truth, revealed in Christ, about God the "Father of mercies,"16
enables us to "see" Him as particularly close to man especially when
man is suffering, when he is under threat at the very heart of his
existence and dignity. And this is why, in the situation of the Church
and the world today, many individuals and groups guided by a lively
sense of faith are turning, I would say almost spontaneously, to the
mercy of God. They are certainly being moved to do this by Christ
Himself, who through His Spirit works within human hearts. For the
mystery of God the "Father of mercies" revealed by Christ becomes, in
the context of today's threats to man, as it were a unique appeal
addressed to the Church.
In the present encyclical wish to accept this appeal; I wish to draw
from the eternal and at the same time-for its simplicity and depth-
incomparable language of revelation and faith, in order through this
same language to express once more before God and before humanity the
major anxieties of our time.
In fact, revelation and faith teach us not only to meditate in the
abstract upon the mystery of God as "Father of mercies," but also to
have recourse to that mercy in the name of Christ and in union with
Him. Did not Christ say that our Father, who "sees in secret,"17 is
always waiting for us to have recourse to Him in every need and always
waiting for us to study His mystery: the mystery of the Father and His
love?18
I therefore wish these considerations to bring this mystery closer to
everyone. At the same time I wish them to be a heartfelt appeal by the
Church to mercy, which humanity and the modern world need so much. And
they need mercy even though they often do not realize it.
II. THE MESSIANIC MESSAGE
3. When Christ Began To Do and To Teach
Before His own townspeople, in Nazareth, Christ refers to the words of
the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the
Lord."19 These phrases, according to Luke, are His first messianic
declaration. They are followed by the actions and words known through
the Gospel. By these actions and words Christ makes the Father present
among men. It is very significant that the people in question are
especially the poor, those without means of subsistence, those deprived
of their freedom, the blind who cannot see the beauty of creation,
those living with broken hearts, or suffering from social injustice,
and finally sinners. It is especially for these last that the Messiah
becomes a particularly clear sign of God who is love, a sign of the
Father. In this visible sign the people of our own time, just like the
people then, can see the Father.
It is significant that, when the messengers sent by John the Baptist
came to Jesus to ask Him: "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look
for another?",20 He answered by referring to the same testimony with
which He had begun His teaching at Nazareth: "Go and tell John what it
is that you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the
lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised
up, the poor have good news preached to them." He then ended with the
words: "And blessed is he who takes no offense at me".21
Especially through His lifestyle and through His actions, Jesus
revealed that love is present in the world in which we live - an
effective love, a love that addresses itself to man and embraces
everything that makes up his humanity. This love makes itself
particularly noticed in contact with suffering, injustice and poverty -
in contact with the whole historical "human condition," which in
various ways manifests man's limitation and frailty, both physical and
moral. It is precisely the mode and sphere in which love manifests
itself that in biblical language is called "mercy."
Christ, then, reveals God who is Father, who is "love," as St. John
will express it in his first letter22; Christ reveals God as "rich in
mercy," as we read in St. Paul.23 This truth is not just the subject of
a teaching; it is a reality made present to us by Christ. Making the
Father present as love and mercy is, in Christ's own consciousness, the
fundamental touchstone of His mission as the Messiah; this is confirmed
by the words that He uttered first in the synagogue at Nazareth and
later in the presence of His disciples and of John the Baptist's
messengers.
On the basis of this way of manifesting the presence of God who is
Father, love and mercy, Jesus makes mercy one of the principal themes
of His preaching. As is His custom, He first teaches "in parables,"
since these express better the very essence of things. It is sufficient
to recall the parable of the prodigal son,24 or the parable of the Good
Samaritan,25 but also - by contrast - the parable of the merciless
servant.26 There are many passages in the teaching of Christ that
manifest love-mercy under some ever-fresh aspect. We need only consider
the Good Shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep, 27 or the woman
who sweeps the house in search of the lost coin.28 The Gospel writer
who particularly treats of these themes in Christ's teaching is Luke,
whose Gospel has earned the title of "the Gospel of mercy."
When one speaks of preaching, one encounters a problem of major
importance with reference to the meaning of terms and the content of
concepts, especially the content of the concept of "mercy" (in
relationship to the concept of "love"). A grasp of the content of these
concepts is the key to understanding the very reality of mercy. And
this is what is most important for us. However, before devoting a
further part of our considerations to this subject, that is to say, to
establishing the meaning of the vocabulary and the content proper to
the concept of mercy," we must note that Christ, in revealing the love
- mercy of God, at the same time demanded from people that they also
should be guided in their lives by love and mercy. This requirement
forms part of the very essence of the messianic message, and
constitutes the heart of the Gospel ethos. The Teacher expresses this
both through the medium of the commandment which He describes as "the
greatest,"29 and also in the form of a blessing, when in the Sermon on
the Mount He proclaims: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy."30
In this way, the messianic message about mercy preserves a particular
divine-human dimension. Christ - the very fulfillment of the messianic
prophecy - by becoming the incarnation of the love that is manifested
with particular force with regard to the suffering, the unfortunate and
sinners, makes present and thus more fully reveals the Father, who is
God "rich in mercy." At the same time, by becoming for people a model
of merciful love for others, Christ proclaims by His actions even more
than by His words that call to mercy which is one of the essential
elements of the Gospel ethos. In this instance it is not just a case of
fulfilling a commandment or an obligation of an ethical nature; it is
also a case of satisfying a condition of major importance for God to
reveal Himself in His mercy to man: "The merciful...shall obtain
mercy."
III. THE OLD TESTAMENT
4. The Concept of "Mercy" in the Old Testament
The concept of "mercy" in the Old Testament has a long and rich
history. We have to refer back to it in order that the mercy revealed
by Christ may shine forth more clearly. By revealing that mercy both
through His actions and through His teaching, Christ addressed Himself
to people who not only knew the concept of mercy, but who also, as the
People of God of the Old Covenant, had drawn from their age - long
history a special experience of the mercy of God. This experience was
social and communal, as well as individual and interior.
Israel was, in fact, the people of the covenant with God, a covenant
that it broke many times. Whenever it became aware of its infidelity -
and in the history of Israel there was no lack of prophets and others
who awakened this awareness-it appealed to mercy. In this regard, the
books of the Old Testament give us very many examples. Among the events
and texts of greater importance one may recall: the beginning of the
history of the Judges,31 the prayer of Solomon at the inauguration of
the Temple,32 part of the prophetic work of Micah,33 the consoling
assurances given by Isaiah,34 the cry of the Jews in exile,35 and the
renewal of the covenant after the return from exile.36
It is significant that in their preaching the prophets link mercy,
which they often refer to because of the people's sins, with the
incisive image of love on God's part. The Lord loves Israel with the
love of a special choosing, much like the love of a spouse,37 and for
this reason He pardons its sins and even its infidelities and
betrayals. When He finds repentance and true conversion, He brings His
people back to grace.38 In the preaching of the prophets, mercy
signifies a special power of love, which prevails over the sin and
infidelity of the chosen people.
In this broad "social" context, mercy appears as a correlative to the
interior experience of individuals languishing in a state of guilt or
enduring every kind of suffering and misfortune. Both physical evil and
moral evil, namely sin, cause the sons and daughters of Israel to turn
to the Lord and beseech His mercy. In this way David turns to Him,
conscious of the seriousness of his guilt39; Job too, after his
rebellion, turns to Him in his tremendous misfortune40; so also does
Esther, knowing the mortal threat to her own people.41 And we find
still other examples in the books of the Old Testament.42
At the root of this many-sided conviction, which is both communal and
personal, and which is demonstrated by the whole of the Old Testament
down the centuries, is the basic experience of the chosen people at the
Exodus: the Lord saw the affliction of His people reduced to slavery,
heard their cry, knew their sufferings and decided to deliver them.43
In this act of salvation by the Lord, the prophet perceived his love
and compassion.44 This is precisely the grounds upon which the people
and each of its members based their certainty of the mercy of God,
which can be invoked whenever tragedy strikes.
Added to this is the fact that sin too constitutes man's misery. The
people of the Old Covenant experienced this misery from the time of the
Exodus, when they set up the golden calf. The Lord Himself triumphed
over this act of breaking the covenant when He solemnly declared to
Moses that He was a "God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."45 It is in this central
revelation that the chosen people, and each of its members, will find,
every time that they have sinned, the strength and the motive for
turning to the Lord to remind Him of what He had exactly revealed about
Himself46 and to beseech His forgiveness.
Thus, in deeds and in words, the Lord revealed His mercy from the very
beginnings of the people which He chose for Himself; and, in the course
of its history, this people continually entrusted itself, both when
stricken with misfortune and when it became aware of its sin, to the
God of mercies. All the subtleties of love become manifest in the
Lord's mercy towards those who are His own: He is their Father,47 for
Israel is His firstborn son48; the Lord is also the bridegroom of her
whose new name the prophet proclaims: Ruhamah, "Beloved" or "she has
obtained pity."49
Even when the Lord is exasperated by the infidelity of His people and
thinks of finishing with it, it is still His tenderness and generous
love for those who are His own which overcomes His anger.50 Thus it is
easy to understand why the psalmists, when they desire to sing the
highest praises of the Lord, break forth into hymns to the God of love,
tenderness, mercy and fidelity.51
From all this it follows that mercy does not pertain only to the notion
of God, but it is something that characterizes the life of the whole
people of Israel and each of its sons and daughters: mercy is the
content of intimacy with their Lord, the content of their dialogue with
Him. Under precisely this aspect, mercy is presented in the individual
books of the Old Testament with a great richness of expression. It may
be difficult to find in these books a purely theoretical answer to the
question of what mercy is in itself. Nevertheless, the terminology that
is used is in itself able to tell us much about this subject.52
The Old Testament proclaims the mercy of the Lord by the use of many
terms with related meanings; they are differentiated by their
particular content, but it could be said that they all converge from
different directions on one single fundamental content, to express its
surpassing richness and at the same time to bring it close to man under
different aspects. The Old Testament encourages people suffering from
misfortune, especially those weighed down by sin - as also the whole of
Israel, which had entered into the covenant with God - to appeal for
mercy, and enables them to count upon it: it reminds them of His mercy
in times of failure and loss of trust. Subsequently, the Old Testament
gives thanks and glory for mercy every time that mercy is made manifest
in the life of the people or in the lives of individuals.
In this way, mercy is in a certain sense contrasted with God's justice,
and in many cases is shown to be not only more powerful than that
justice but also more profound. Even the Old Testament teaches that,
although justice is an authentic virtue in man, and in God signifies
transcendent perfection nevertheless love is "greater" than justice:
greater in the sense that it is primary and fundamental. Love, so to
speak, conditions justice and, in the final analysis, justice serves
love. The primacy and superiority of love vis-a-vis justice - this is a
mark of the whole of revelation - are revealed precisely through mercy.
This seemed so obvious to the psalmists and prophets that the very term
justice ended up by meaning the salvation accomplished by the Lord and
His mercy.53 Mercy differs from justice, but is not in opposition to
it, if we admit in the history of man - as the Old Testament precisely
does-the presence of God, who already as Creator has linked Himself to
His creature with a particular love. Love, by its very nature, excludes
hatred and ill - will towards the one to whom He once gave the gift of
Himself: Nihil odisti eorum quae fecisti, "you hold nothing of what you
have made in abhorrence."54 These words indicate the profound basis of
the relationship between justice and mercy in God, in His relations
with man and the world. They tell us that we must seek the life-giving
roots and intimate reasons for this relationship by going back to "the
beginning," in the very mystery of creation. They foreshadow in the
context of the Old Covenant the full revelation of God, who is
"love."55
Connected with the mystery of creation is the mystery of the election,
which in a special way shaped the history of the people whose spiritual
father is Abraham by virtue of his faith. Nevertheless, through this
people which journeys forward through the history both of the Old
Covenant and of the New, that mystery of election refers to every man
and woman, to the whole great human family. "I have loved you with an
everlasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."56
"For the mountains may depart...my steadfast love shall not depart from
you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed."57 This truth, once
proclaimed to Israel, involves a perspective of the whole history of
man, a perspective both temporal and eschatological.58 Christ reveals
the Father within the framework of the same perspective and on ground
already prepared, as many pages of the Old Testament writings
demonstrate. At the end of this revelation, on the night before He
dies, He says to the apostle Philip these memorable words: "Have I been
with you so long, and yet you do not know me...? He who has seen me has
seen the Father."59
IV. THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON
5. An Analogy
At the very beginning of the New Testament, two voices resound in St.
Luke's Gospel in unique harmony concerning the mercy of God, a harmony
which forcefully echoes the whole Old Testament tradition. They express
the semantic elements linked to the differentiated terminology of the
ancient books. Mary, entering the house of Zechariah, magnifies the
Lord with all her soul for "his mercy," which "from generation to
generation" is bestowed on those who fear Him. A little later, as she
recalls the election of Israel, she proclaims the mercy which He who
has chosen her holds "in remembrance" from all time.60 Afterwards, in
the same house, when John the Baptist is born, his father Zechariah
blesses the God of Israel and glorifies Him for performing the mercy
promised to our fathers and for remembering His holy covenant.61
In the teaching of Christ Himself, this image inherited from the Old
Testament becomes at the same time simpler and more profound. This is
perhaps most evident in the parable of the prodigal son.62 Although the
word "mercy" does not appear, it nevertheless expresses the essence of
the divine mercy in a particularly clear way. This is due not so much
to the terminology, as in the Old Testament books, as to the analogy
that enables us to understand more fully the very mystery of mercy, as
a profound drama played out between the father's love and the
prodigality and sin of the son.
That son, who receives from the father the portion of the inheritance
that is due to him and leaves home to squander it in a far country "in
loose living," in a certain sense is the man of every period, beginning
with the one who was the first to lose the inheritance of grace and
original justice. The analogy at this point is very wide- ranging. The
parable indirectly touches upon every breach of the covenant of love,
every loss of grace, every sin. In this analogy there is less emphasis
than in the prophetic tradition on the unfaithfulness of the whole
people of Israel, although the analogy of the prodigal son may extend
to this also. "When he had spent everything," the son "began to be in
need," especially as "a great famine arose in that country" to which he
had gone after leaving his father's house. And in this situation "he
would gladly have fed on" anything, even "the pods that the swine ate,"
the swine that he herded for "one of the citizens of that country." But
even this was refused him.
The analogy turns clearly towards man's interior. The inheritance that
the son had received from his father was a quantity of material goods,
but more important than these goods was his dignity as a son in his
father's house. The situation in which he found himself when he lost
the material goods should have made him aware of the loss of that
dignity. He had not thought about it previously, when he had asked his
father to give him the part of the inheritance that was due to him, in
order to go away. He seems not to be conscious of it even now, when he
says to himself: "How many of my father's hired servants have bread
enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger." He measures
himself by the standard of the goods that he has lost, that he no
longer "possesses," while the hired servants of his father's house
"possess" them. These words express above all his attitude to material
goods; nevertheless under their surface is concealed the tragedy of
lost dignity, the awareness of squandered sonship.
It is at this point that he makes the decision: "I will arise and go to
my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me
as one of your hired servants.'"63 These are words that reveal more
deeply the essential problem. Through the complex material situation in
which the prodigal son found himself because of his folly, because of
sin, the sense of lost dignity had matured. When he decides to return
to his father's house, to ask his father to be received-no longer by
virtue of his right as a son, but as an employee-at first sight he
seems to be acting by reason of the hunger and poverty that he had
fallen into; this motive, however, is permeated by an awareness of a
deeper loss: to be a hired servant in his own father's house is
certainly a great humiliation and source of shame. Nevertheless, the
prodigal son is ready to undergo that humiliation and shame. He
realizes that he no longer has any right except to be an employee in
his father's house. His decision is taken in full consciousness of what
he has deserved and of what he can still have a right to in accordance
with the norms of justice. Precisely this reasoning demonstrates that,
at the center of the prodigal son's consciousness, the sense of lost
dignity is emerging, the sense of that dignity that springs from the
relationship of the son with the father. And it is with this decision
that he sets out.
In the parable of the prodigal son, the term "justice" is not used even
once; just as in the original text the term "mercy" is not used either.
Nevertheless, the relationship between justice and love, that is
manifested as mercy, is inscribed with great exactness in the content
of the Gospel parable. It becomes more evident that love is transformed
into mercy when it is necessary to go beyond the precise norm of
justice-precise and often too narrow. The prodigal son, having wasted
the property he received from his father, deserves - after his return -
to earn his living by working in his father's house as a hired servant
and possibly, little by little, to build up a certain provision of
material goods, though perhaps never as much as the amount he had
squandered. This would be demanded by the order of justice, especially
as the son had not only squandered the part of the inheritance
belonging to him but had also hurt and offended his father by his whole
conduct. Since this conduct had in his own eyes deprived him of his
dignity as a son, it could not be a matter of indifference to his
father. It was bound to make him suffer. It was also bound to implicate
him in some way. And yet, after all, it was his own son who was
involved, and such a relationship could never be altered or destroyed
by any sort of behavior. The prodigal son is aware of this and it is
precisely this awareness that shows him clearly the dignity which he
has lost and which makes him honestly evaluate the position that he
could still expect in his father's house.
6. Particular Concentration on Human Dignity
This exact picture of the prodigal son's state of mind enables us to
understand exactly what the mercy of God consists in. There is no doubt
that in this simple but penetrating analogy the figure of the father
reveals to us God as Father. The conduct of the father in the parable
and his whole behavior, which manifests his internal attitude, enables
us to rediscover the individual threads of the Old Testament vision of
mercy in a synthesis which is totally new, full of simplicity and
depth. The father of the prodigal son is faithful to his fatherhood,
faithful to the love that he had always lavished on his son. This
fidelity is expressed in the parable not only by his immediate
readiness to welcome him home when he returns after having squandered
his inheritance; it is expressed even more fully by that joy, that
merrymaking for the squanderer after his return, merrymaking which is
so generous that it provokes the opposition and hatred of the elder
brother, who had never gone far away from his father and had never
abandoned the home.
The father's fidelity to himself - a trait already known by the Old
Testament term hesed - is at the same time expressed in a manner
particularly charged with affection. We read, in fact, that when the
father saw the prodigal son returning home "he had compassion, ran to
meet him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him."64 He
certainly does this under the influence of a deep affection, and this
also explains his generosity towards his son, that generosity which so
angers the elder son. Nevertheless, the causes of this emotion are to
be sought at a deeper level. Notice, the father is aware that a
fundamental good has been saved: the good of his son's humanity.
Although the son has squandered the inheritance, nevertheless his
humanity is saved. Indeed, it has been, in a way, found again. The
father's words to the elder son reveal this: "It was fitting to make
merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive; he was
lost and is found."65 In the same chapter fifteen of Luke's Gospel, we
read the parable of the sheep that was found66 and then the parable of
the coin that was found.67 Each time there is an emphasis on the same
joy that is present in the case of the prodigal son. The father's
fidelity to himself is totally concentrated upon the humanity of the
lost son, upon his dignity. This explains above all his joyous emotion
at the moment of the son's return home.
Going on, one can therefore say that the love for the son the love that
springs from the very essence of fatherhood, in a way obliges the
father to be concerned about his son's dignity. This concern is the
measure of his love, the love of which Saint Paul was to write: "Love
is patient and kind.. .love does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful...but rejoices in the right...hopes all things,
endures all things" and "love never ends."68 Mercy - as Christ has
presented it in the parable of the prodigal son - has the interior form
of the love that in the New Testament is called agape. This love is
able to reach down to every prodigal son, to every human misery, and
above all to every form of moral misery, to sin. When this happens, the
person who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather
found again and "restored to value." The father first and foremost
expresses to him his joy that he has been "found again" and that he has
"returned to life. This joy indicates a good that has remained intact:
even if he is a prodigal, a son does not cease to be truly his father's
son; it also indicates a good that has been found again, which in the
case of the prodigal son was his return to the truth about himself.
What took place in the relationship between the father and the son in
Christ's parable is not to be evaluated "from the outside." Our
prejudices about mercy are mostly the result of appraising them only
from the outside. At times it happens that by following this method of
evaluation we see in mercy above all a relationship of inequality
between the one offering it and the one receiving it. And, in
consequence, we are quick to deduce that mercy belittles the receiver,
that it offends the dignity of man. The parable of the prodigal son
shows that the reality is different: the relationship of mercy is based
on the common experience of that good which is man, on the common
experience of the dignity that is proper to him. This common experience
makes the prodigal son begin to see himself and his actions in their
full truth (this vision in truth is a genuine form of humility); on the
other hand, for this very reason he becomes a particular good for his
father: the father sees so clearly the good which has been achieved
thanks to a mysterious radiation of truth and love, that he seems to
forget all the evil which the son had committed.
The parable of the prodigal son expresses in a simple but profound way
the reality of conversion. Conversion is the most concrete expression
of the working of love and of the presence of mercy in the human world.
The true and proper meaning of mercy does not consist only in looking,
however penetratingly and compassionately, at moral, physical or
material evil: mercy is manifested in its true and proper aspect when
it restores to value, promotes and draws good from all the forms of
evil existing in the world and in man. Understood in this way, mercy
constitutes the fundamental content of the messianic message of Christ
and the constitutive power of His mission. His disciples and followers
understood and practiced mercy in the same way. Mercy never ceased to
reveal itself, in their hearts and in their actions, as an especially
creative proof of the love which does not allow itself to be "conquered
by evil," but overcomes "evil with good."69 The genuine face of mercy
has to be ever revealed anew. In spite of many prejudices, mercy seems
particularly necessary for our times.
V. THE PASCHAL MYSTERY
7. Mercy Revealed in the Cross and Resurrection
The messianic message of Christ and His activity among people end with
the cross and resurrection. We have to penetrate deeply into this final
event-which especially in the language of the Council is defined as the
Mysterium Paschale - if we wish to express in depth the truth about
mercy, as it has been revealed in depth in the history of our
salvation. At this point of our considerations, we shall have to draw
closer still to the content of the encyclical Redemptor hominis. If, in
fact, the reality of the Redemption, in its human dimension, reveals
the unheard - of greatness of man, qui talem ac tantum meruit habere
Redemptorem,70 at the same time the divine dimension of the redemption
enables us, I would say, in the most empirical and "historical" way, to
uncover the depth of that love which does not recoil before the
extraordinary sacrifice of the Son, in order to satisfy the fidelity of
the Creator and Father towards human beings, created in His image and
chosen from "the beginning," in this Son, for grace and glory.
The events of Good Friday and, even before that, in prayer in
Gethsemane, introduce a fundamental change into the whole course of the
revelation of love and mercy in the messianic mission of Christ. The
one who "went about doing good and healing"71 and "curing every
sickness and disease"72 now Himself seems to merit the greatest mercy
and to appeal for mercy, when He is arrested, abused, condemned,
scourged, crowned with thorns, when He is nailed to the cross and dies
amidst agonizing torments.73 It is then that He particularly deserves
mercy from the people to whom He has done good, and He does not receive
it. Even those who are closest to Him cannot protect Him and snatch Him
from the hands of His oppressors. At this final stage of His messianic
activity the words which the prophets, especially Isaiah, uttered
concerning the Servant of Yahweh are fulfilled in Christ: "Through his
stripes we are healed."74
Christ, as the man who suffers really and in a terrible way in the
Garden of Olives and on Calvary, addresses Himself to the Father- that
Father whose love He has preached to people, to whose mercy He has
borne witness through all of His activity. But He is not spared - not
even He-the terrible suffering of death on the cross: For our sake God
made him to be sin who knew no sin,"75 St. Paul will write, summing up
in a few words the whole depth of the cross and at the same time the
divine dimension of the reality of the Redemption. Indeed this
Redemption is the ultimate and definitive revelation of the holiness of
God, who is the absolute fullness of perfection: fullness of justice
and of love, since justice is based on love, flows from it and tends
towards it. In the passion and death of Christ-in the fact that the
Father did not spare His own Son, but "for our sake made him sin"76 -
absolute justice is expressed, for Christ undergoes the passion and
cross because of the sins of humanity. This constitutes even a
"superabundance" of justice, for the sins of man are "compensated for"
by the sacrifice of the Man-God. Nevertheless, this justice, which is
properly justice "to God's measure," springs completely from love: from
the love of the Father and of the Son, and completely bears fruit in
love. Precisely for this reason the divine justice revealed in the
cross of Christ is "to God's measure," because it springs from love and
is accomplished in love, producing fruits of salvation. The divine
dimension of redemption is put into effect not only by bringing justice
to bear upon sin, but also by restoring to love that creative power in
man thanks also which he once more has access to the fullness of life
and holiness that come from God. In this way, redemption involves the
revelation of mercy in its fullness.
The Paschal Mystery is the culmination of this revealing and effecting
of mercy, which is able to justify man, to restore justice in the sense
of that salvific order which God willed from the beginning in man and,
through man, in the world. The suffering Christ speaks in a special way
to man, and not only to the believer. The non-believer also will be
able to discover in Him the eloquence of solidarity with the human lot,
as also the harmonious fullness of a disinterested dedication to the
cause of man, to truth and to love. And yet the divine dimension of the
Paschal Mystery goes still deeper. The cross on Calvary, the cross upon
which Christ conducts His final dialogue with the Father, emerges from
the very heart of the love that man, created in the image and likeness
of God, has been given as a gift, according to God's eternal plan. God,
as Christ has revealed Him, does not merely remain closely linked with
the world as the Creator and the ultimate source of existence. He is
also Father: He is linked to man, whom He called to existence in the
visible world, by a bond still more intimate than that of creation. It
is love which not only creates the good but also grants participation
in the very life of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For he who loves
desires to give himself.
The cross of Christ on Calvary stands beside the path of that admirable
commercium, of that wonderful self-communication of God to man, which
also includes the call to man to share in the divine life by giving
himself, and with himself the whole visible world, to God, and like an
adopted son to become a sharer in the truth and love which is in God
and proceeds from God. It is precisely beside the path of man's eternal
election to the dignity of being an adopted child of God that there
stands in history the cross of Christ, the only - begotten Son, who, as
"light from light, true God from true God,"77 came to give the final
witness to the wonderful covenant of God with humanity, of God with man
- every human being This covenant, as old as man - it goes back to the
very mystery of creation - and afterwards many times renewed with one
single chosen people, is equally the new and definitive covenant, which
was established there on Calvary, and is not limited to a single
people, to Israel, but is open to each and every individual.
What else, then, does the cross of Christ say to us, the cross that in
a sense is the final word of His messianic message and mission? And yet
this is not yet the word of the God of the covenant: that will be
pronounced at the dawn when first the women and then the Apostles come
to the tomb of the crucified Christ, see the tomb empty and for the
first time hear the message: "He is risen." They will repeat this
message to the others and will be witnesses to the risen Christ. Yet,
even in this glorification of the Son of God, the cross remains, that
cross which-through all the messianic testimony of the Man the Son, who
suffered death upon it - speaks and never ceases to speak of God the
Father, who is absolutely faithful to His eternal love for man, since
He "so loved the world" - therefore man in the world-that "he gave his
only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life."78 Believing in the crucified Son means "seeing the
Father,"79 means believing that love is present in the world and that
this love is more powerful than any kind of evil in which individuals,
humanity, or the world are involved. Believing in this love means
believing in mercy. For mercy is an indispensable dimension of love; it
is as it were love's second name and, at the same time, the specific
manner in which love is revealed and effected vis-a-vis the reality of
the evil that is in the world, affecting and besieging man, insinuating
itself even into his heart and capable of causing him to "perish in
Gehenna."80
8. Love More Powerful Than Death, More Powerful Than Sin
The cross of Christ on Calvary is also a witness to the strength of
evil against the very Son of God, against the one who, alone among all
the sons of men, was by His nature absolutely innocent and free from
sin, and whose coming into the world was untainted by the disobedience
of Adam and the inheritance of original sin. And here, precisely in
Him, in Christ, justice is done to sin at the price of His sacrifice,
of His obedience "even to death."81 He who was without sin, "God made
him sin for our sake."82 Justice is also brought to bear upon death,
which from the beginning of man's history had been allied to sin. Death
has justice done to it at the price of the death of the one who was
without sin and who alone was able-by means of his own death-to inflict
death upon death.83 In this way the cross of Christ, on which the Son,
consubstantial with the Father, renders full justice to God, is also a
radical revelation of mercy, or rather of the love that goes against
what constitutes the very root of evil in the history of man: against
sin and death.
The cross is the most profound condescension of God to man and to what
man-especially in difficult and painful moments-looks on as his unhappy
destiny. The cross is like a touch of eternal love upon the most
painful wounds of man's earthly existence; it is the total fulfillment
of the messianic program that Christ once formulated in the synagogue
at Nazareth 84 and then repeated to the messengers sent by John the
Baptist.85 According to the words once written in the prophecy of
Isaiah,86 this program consisted in the revelation of merciful love for
the poor, the suffering and prisoners, for the blind, the oppressed and
sinners. In the paschal mystery the limits of the many sided evil in
which man becomes a sharer during his earthly existence are surpassed:
the cross of Christ, in fact, makes us understand the deepest roots of
evil, which are fixed in sin and death; thus the cross becomes an
eschatological sign. Only in the eschatological fulfillment and
definitive renewal of the world will love conquer, in all the elect,
the deepest sources of evil, bringing as its fully mature fruit the
kingdom of life and holiness and glorious immortality. The foundation
of this eschatological fulfillment is already contained in the cross of
Christ and in His death. The fact that Christ "was raised the third
day"87 constitutes the final sign of the messianic mission, a sign that
perfects the entire revelation of merciful love in a world that is
subject to evil. At the same time it constitutes the sign that
foretells "a new heaven and a new earth,"88 when God "will wipe away
every tear from their eyes, there will be no more death, or mourning no
crying, nor pain, for the former things have passed away."89
In the eschatological fulfillment mercy will be revealed as love, while
in the temporal phase, in human history, which is at the same time the
history of sin and death, love must be revealed above all as mercy and
must also be actualized as mercy. Christ's messianic program, the
program of mercy, becomes the program of His people, the program of the
Church. At its very center there is always the cross, for it is in the
cross that the revelation of merciful love attains its culmination.
Until "the former things pass away,"90 the cross will remain the point
of reference for other words too of the Revelation of John: "Behold, I
stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the
door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me."91 In a special
way, God also reveals His mercy when He invites man to have "mercy" on
His only Son, the crucified one.
Christ, precisely as the crucified one, is the Word that does not pass
away,92 and He is the one who stands at the door and knocks at the
heart of every man,93 without restricting his freedom, but instead
seeking to draw from this very freedom love, which is not only an act
of solidarity with the suffering Son of man, but also a kind of "mercy"
shown by each one of us to the Son of the eternal Father. In the whole
of this messianic program of Christ, in the whole revelation of mercy
through the cross, could man's dignity be more highly respected and
ennobled, for, in obtaining mercy, He is in a sense the one who at the
same time "shows mercy"? In a word, is not this the position of Christ
with regard to man when He says: "As you did it to one of the least of
these...you did it to me"?94 Do not the words of the Sermon on the
Mount: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,"95
constitute, in a certain sense, a synthesis of the whole of the Good
News, of the whole of the "wonderful exchange" (admirable commercium)
contained therein? This exchange is a law of the very plan of
salvation, a law which is simple, strong and at the same time "easy."
Demonstrating from the very start what the "human heart" is capable of
("to be merciful"), do not these words from the Sermon on the Mount
reveal in the same perspective the deep mystery of God: that
inscrutable unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in which love,
containing justice, sets in motion mercy, which in its turn reveals the
perfection of justice?
The Paschal Mystery is Christ at the summit of the revelation of the
inscrutable mystery of God. It is precisely then that the words
pronounced in the Upper Room are completely fulfilled: "He who has seen
me has seen the Father."96 In fact, Christ, whom the Father "did not
spare"97 for the sake of man and who in His passion and in the torment
of the cross did not obtain human mercy, has revealed in His
resurrection the fullness of the love that the Father has for Him and,
in Him, for all people. "He is not God of the dead, but of the
living."98 In His resurrection Christ has revealed the God of merciful
love, precisely because He accepted the cross as the way to the
resurrection. And it is for this reason that-when we recall the cross
of Christ, His passion and death-our faith and hope are centered on the
Risen One: on that Christ who "on the evening of that day, the first
day of the week, . . .stood among them" in the upper Room, "where the
disciples were, ...breathed on them, and said to them: 'Receive the
Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you
retain the sins of any, they are retained.'"99
Here is the Son of God, who in His resurrection experienced in a
radical way mercy shown to Himself, that is to say the love of the
Father which is more powerful than death. And it is also the same
Christ, the Son of God, who at the end of His messianic mission - and,
in a certain sense, even beyond the end - reveals Himself as the
inexhaustible source of mercy, of the same love that, in a subsequent
perspective of the history of salvation in the Church, is to be
everlastingly confirmed as more powerful than sin. The paschal Christ
is the definitive incarnation of mercy, its living sign in salvation
history and in eschatology. In the same spirit, the liturgy of
Eastertide places on our lips the words of the Psalm: Misericordias
Domini in aeternum cantabo.100
9. Mother of Mercy
These words of the Church at Easter re-echo in the fullness of their
prophetic content the words that Mary uttered during her visit to
Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah: "His mercy is...from generation to
generation."101 At the very moment of the Incarnation, these words open
up a new perspective of salvation history. After the resurrection of
Christ, this perspective is new on both the historical and the
eschatological level. From that time onwards there is a succession of
new generations of individuals in the immense human family, in
ever-increasing dimensions; there is also a succession of new
generations of the People of God, marked with the Sign of the Cross and
of the resurrection and "sealed"102 with the sign of the Paschal
Mystery of Christ, the absolute revelation of the mercy that Mary
proclaimed on the threshold of her kinswoman's house: "His mercy
is...from generation to generation."103
Mary is also the one who obtained mercy in a particular and exceptional
way, as no other person has. At the same time, still in an exceptional
way, she made possible with the sacrifice of her heart her own sharing
in revealing God's mercy. This sacrifice is intimately linked with the
cross of her Son, at the foot of which she was to stand on Calvary. Her
sacrifice is a unique sharing in the revelation of mercy, that is, a
sharing in the absolute fidelity of God to His own love, to the
covenant that He willed from eternity and that He entered into in time
with man, with the people, with humanity; it is a sharing in that
revelation that was definitively fulfilled through the cross. No one
has experienced, to the same degree as the Mother of the crucified One,
the mystery of the cross, the overwhelming encounter of divine
transcendent justice with love: that "kiss" given by mercy to
justice.104 No one has received into his heart, as much as Mary did,
that mystery, that truly divine dimension of the redemption effected on
Calvary by means of the death of the Son, together with the sacrifice
of her maternal heart, together with her definitive "fiat."
Mary, then, is the one who has the deepest knowledge of the mystery of
God's mercy. She knows its price, she knows how great it is. In this
sense, we call her the Mother of mercy: our Lady of mercy, or Mother of
divine mercy; in each one of these titles there is a deep theological
meaning, for they express the special preparation of her soul, of her
whole personality, so that she was able to perceive, through the
complex events, first of Israel, then of every individual and of the
whole of humanity, that mercy of which "from generation to
generation"105 people become sharers according to the eternal design of
the most Holy Trinity.
The above titles which we attribute to the Mother of God speak of her
principally, however, as the Mother of the crucified and risen One; as
the One who, having obtained mercy in an exceptional way, in an equally
exceptional way "merits" that mercy throughout her earthly life and,
particularly, at the foot of the cross of her Son; and finally as the
one who, through her hidden and at the same time incomparable sharing
in the messianic mission of her Son, was called in a special way to
bring close to people that love which He had come to reveal: the love
that finds its most concrete expression vis-a-vis the suffering, the
poor, those deprived of their own freedom, the blind, the oppressed and
sinners, just as Christ spoke of them in the words of the prophecy of
Isaiah, first in the synagogue at Nazareth106 and then in response to
the question of the messengers of John the Baptist.107
It was precisely this "merciful" love, which is manifested above all in
contact with moral and physical evil, that the heart of her who was the
Mother of the crucified and risen One shared in singularly and
exceptionally - that Mary shared in. In her and through her, this love
continues to be revealed in the history of the Church and of humanity.
This revelation is especially fruitful because in the Mother of God it
is based upon the unique tact of her maternal heart, on her particular
sensitivity, on her particular fitness to reach all those who most
easily accept the merciful love of a mother. This is one of the great
life-giving mysteries of Christianity, a mystery intimately connected
with the mystery of the Incarnation.
"The motherhood of Mary in the order of grace," as the Second Vatican
Council explains, "lasts without interruption from the consent which
she faithfully gave at the annunciation and which she sustained without
hesitation under the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the
elect. In fact, being assumed into heaven she has not laid aside this
office of salvation but by her manifold intercession she continues to
obtain for us the graces of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity,
she takes care of the brethren of her Son who still journey on earth
surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their
blessed home."108
VI. "MERCY...FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION"
10. An Image of Our Generation
We have every right to believe that our generation too was included in
the words of the Mother of God when she glorified that mercy shared in
"from generation to generation" by those who allow themselves to be
guided by the fear of God. The words of Mary's Magnificat have a
prophetic content that concerns not only the past of Israel but also
the whole future of the People of God on earth. In fact, all of us now
living on earth are the generation that is aware of the approach of the
third millennium and that profoundly feels the change that is occurring
in history.
The present generation knows that it is in a privileged position:
progress provides it with countless possibilities that only a few
decades ago were undreamed of. Man's creative activity, his
intelligence and his work, have brought about profound changes both in
the field of science and technology and in that of social and cultural
life. Man has extended his power over nature and has acquired deeper
knowledge of the laws of social behavior. He has seen the obstacles and
distances between individuals and nations dissolve or shrink through an
increased sense of what is universal, through a clearer awareness of
the unity of the human race, through the acceptance of mutual
dependence in authentic solidarity, and through the desire and
possibility of making contact with one's brothers and sisters beyond
artificial geographical divisions and national or racial limits.
Today's young people, especially, know that the progress of science and
technology can produce not only new material goods but also a wider
sharing in knowledge. The extraordinary progress made in the field of
information and data processing, for instance, will increase man's
creative capacity and provide access to the intellectual and cultural
riches of other peoples. New communications techniques will encourage
greater participation in events and a wider exchange of ideas. The
achievements of biological, psychological and social science will help
man to understand better the riches of his own being. It is true that
too often this progress is still the privilege of the industrialized
countries, but it cannot be denied that the prospect of enabling every
people and every country to benefit from it has long ceased to be a
mere utopia when there is a real political desire for it.
But side by side with all this, or rather as part of it, there are also
the difficulties that appear whenever there is growth. There is unease
and a sense of powerlessness regarding the profound response that man
knows that he must give. The picture of the world today also contains
shadows and imbalances that are not always merely superficial. The
Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes of the Second Vatican Council is
certainly not the only document that deals with the life of this
generation, but it is a document of particular importance. "The
dichotomy affecting the modern world," we read in it, "is,,in fact, a
symptom of a deeper dichotomy that is in man himself. He is the meeting
point of many conflicting forces. In his condition as a created being
he is subject to a thousand shortcomings, but feels untrammelled in his
inclinations and destined for a higher form of life. Torn by a welter
of anxieties he is compelled to choose between them and repudiate some
among them. Worse still, feeble and sinful as he is, he often does the
very thing he hates and does not do what he wants. And so he feels
himself divided, and the result is a host of discords in social
life."109
Towards the end of the introductory exposition we read: ". . .in the
face of modern developments there is a growing body of men who are
asking the most fundamental of all questions or are glimpsing them with
a keener insight: What is man? What is the meaning of suffering, evil,
death, which have not been eliminated by all this progress? What is the
purpose of these achievements, purchased at so high a price?"110
In the span of the fifteen years since the end of the Second Vatican
Council, has this picture of tensions and threats that mark our epoch
become less disquieting? It seems not. On the contrary, the tensions
and threats that in the Council document seem only to be outlined and
not to manifest in depth all the dangers hidden within them have
revealed themselves more clearly in the space of these years; they have
in a different way confirmed that danger, and do not permit us to
cherish the illusions of the past.
11. Sources of Uneasiness
Thus, in our world the feeling of being under threat is increasing.
There is an increase of that existential fear connected especially, as
I said in the encyclical Redemptor hominis, with the prospect of a
conflict that in view of today's atomic stockpiles could mean the
partial self-destruction of humanity. But the threat does not merely
concern what human beings can do to human beings through the means
provided by military technology; it also concerns many other dangers
produced by a materialistic society which-in spite of "humanistic"
declarations-accepts the primacy of things over persons. Contemporary
man, therefore, fears that by the use of the means invented by this
type of society, individuals and the environment, communities,
societies and nations can fall victim to the abuse of power by other
individuals, environments and societies. The history of our century
offers many examples of this. In spite of all the declarations on the
rights of man in his integral dimension, that is to say in his bodily
and spiritual existence, we cannot say that these examples belong only
to the past.
Man rightly fears falling victim to an oppression that will deprive him
of his interior freedom, of the possibility of expressing the truth of
which he is convinced, of the faith that he professes, of the ability
to obey the voice of conscience that tells him the right path to
follow. The technical means at the disposal of modern society conceal
within themselves not only the possibility of self-destruction through
military conflict, but also the possibility of a "peaceful" subjugation
of individuals, of environments, of entire societies and of nations,
that for one reason or another might prove inconvenient for those who
possess the necessary means and are ready to use them without scruple.
An instance is the continued existence of torture, systematically used
by authority as a means of domination and political oppression and
practiced by subordinates with impunity.
Together with awareness of the biological threat, therefore, there is a
growing awareness of yet another threat, even more destructive of what
is essentially human, what is intimately bound up with the dignity of
the person and his or her right to truth and freedom.
All this is happening against the background of the gigantic remorse
caused by the fact that, side by side with wealthy and surfeited people
and societies, living in plenty and ruled by consumerism and pleasure,
the same human family contains individuals and groups that are
suffering from hunger. There are babies dying of hunger under their
mothers' eyes. In various parts of the world, in various socio-economic
systems, there exist entire areas of poverty, shortage and
underdevelopment. This fact is universally known. The state of
inequality between individuals and between nations not only still
exists; it is increasing. It still happens that side by side with those
who are wealthy and living in plenty there exist those who are living
in want, suffering misery and often actually dying of hunger; and their
number reaches tens, even hundreds of millions. This is why moral
uneasiness is destined to become even more acute. It is obvious that a
fundamental defect, or rather a series of defects, indeed a defective
machinery is at the root of contemporary economics and materialistic
civilization, which does not allow the human family to break free from
such radically unjust situations.
This picture of today's world in which there is so much evil both
physical and moral, so as to make of it a world entangled in
contradictions and tensions, and at the same time full of threats to
human freedom, conscience and religion-this picture explains the
uneasiness felt by contemporary man. This uneasiness is experienced not
only by those who are disadvantaged or oppressed, but also by those who
possess the privileges of wealth, progress and power. And, although
there is no lack of people trying to understand the causes of this
uneasiness, or trying to react against it with the temporary means
offered by technology, wealth or power, still in the very depth of the
human spirit this uneasiness is stronger than all temporary means. This
uneasiness concerns-as the analyses of the Second Vatican Council
rightly pointed out-the fundamental problems of all human existence. It
is linked with the very sense of man's existence in the world, and is
an uneasiness for the future of man and all humanity; it demands
decisive solutions, which now seem to be forcing themselves upon the
human race.
12. Is Justice Enough?
It is not difficult to see that in the modern world the sense of
justice has been reawakening on a vast scale; and without doubt this
emphasizes that which goes against justice in relationships between
individuals, social groups and "classes," between individual peoples
and states, and finally between whole political systems, indeed between
what are called "worlds." This deep and varied trend, at the basis of
which the contemporary human conscience has placed justice, gives proof
of the ethical character of the tensions and struggles pervading the
world.
The Church shares with the people of our time this profound and ardent
desire for a life which is just in every aspect, nor does she fail to
examine the various aspects of the sort of justice that the life of
people and society demands. This is confirmed by the field of Catholic
social doctrine, greatly developed in the course of the last century.
On the lines of this teaching proceed the education and formation of
human consciences in the spirit of justice, and also individual
undertakings, especially in the sphere of the apostolate of the laity,
which are developing in precisely this spirit.
And yet, it would be difficult not to notice that very often programs
which start from the idea of justice and which ought to assist its
fulfillment among individuals, groups and human societies, in practice
suffer from distortions. Although they continue to appeal to the idea
of justice, nevertheless experience shows that other negative forces
have gained the upper hand over justice, such as spite, hatred and even
cruelty. In such cases, the desire to annihilate the enemy, limit his
freedom, or even force him into total dependence, becomes the
fundamental motive for action; and this contrasts with the essence of
justice, which by its nature tends to establish equality and harmony
between the parties in conflict. This kind of abuse of the idea of
justice and the practical distortion of it show how far human action
can deviate from justice itself, even when it is being undertaken in
the name of justice. Not in vain did Christ challenge His listeners,
faithful to the doctrine of the Old Testament, for their attitude which
was manifested in the words: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth."111 This was the form of distortion of justice at that time; and
today's forms continue to be modeled on it. It is obvious, in fact,
that in the name of an alleged justice (for example, historical justice
or class justice) the neighbor is sometimes destroyed, killed, deprived
of liberty or stripped of fundamental human rights. The experience of
the past and of our own time demonstrates that justice alone is not
enough, that it can even lead to the negation and destruction of
itself, if that deeper power, which is love, is not allowed to shape
human life in its various dimensions. It has been precisely historical
experience that, among other things, has led to the formulation of the
saying: summum ius, summa iniuria. This statement does not detract from
the value of justice and does not minimize the significance of the
order that is based upon it; it only indicates, under another aspect,
the need to draw from the powers of the spirit which condition the very
order of justice, powers which are still more profound.
The Church, having before her eyes the picture of the generation to
which we belong, shares the uneasiness of so many of the people of our
time. Moreover, one cannot fail to be worried by the decline of many
fundamental values, which constitute an unquestionable good not only
for Christian morality but simply for human morality, for moral
culture: these values include respect for human life from the moment of
conception, respect for marriage in its indissoluble unity, and respect
for the stability of the family. Moral permissiveness strikes
especially at this most sensitive sphere of life and society. Hand in
hand with this go the crisis of truth in human relationships, lack of
responsibility for what one says, the purely utilitarian relationship
between individual and individual, the loss of a sense of the authentic
common good and the ease with which this good is alienated. Finally,
there is the "desacralization" that often turns into "dehumanization":
the individual and the society for whom nothing is "sacred" suffer
moral decay, in spite of appearances.
VII. THE MERCY OF GOD IN THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
In connection with this picture of our generation, a picture which
cannot fail to cause profound anxiety, there come to mind once more
those words which, by reason of the Incarnation of the Son of God,
resounded in Mary's Magnificat, and which sing of "mercy from
generation to generation." The Church of our time, constantly pondering
the eloquence of these inspired words, and applying them to the
sufferings of the great human family, must become more particularly and
profoundly conscious of the need to bear witness in her whole mission
to God's mercy, following in the footsteps of the tradition of the Old
and the New Covenant, and above all of Jesus Christ Himself and His
Apostles. The Church must bear witness to the mercy of God revealed in
Christ, in the whole of His mission as Messiah, professing it in the
first place as a salvific truth of faith and as necessary for a life in
harmony with faith, and then seeking to introduce it and to make it
incarnate in the lives both of her faithful and as far as possible in
the lives of all people of good will. Finally, the Church-professing
mercy and remaining always faithful to it-has the right and the duty to
call upon the mercy of God, imploring it in the face of all the
manifestations of physical and moral evil, before all the threats that
cloud the whole horizon of the life of humanity today.
13. The Church Professes the Mercy of God and Proclaims It
The Church must profess and proclaim God's mercy in all its truth, as
it has been handed down to us by revelation. We have sought, in the
foregoing pages of the present document, to give at least an outline of
this truth, which finds such rich expression in the whole of Sacred
Scripture and in Sacred Tradition. In the daily life of the Church the
truth about the mercy of God, expressed in the Bible, resounds as a
perennial echo through the many readings of the Sacred Liturgy. The
authentic sense of faith of the People of God perceives this truth, as
is shown by various expressions of personal and community piety. It
would of course be difficult to give a list or summary of them all,
since most of them are vividly inscribed in the depths of people's
hearts and minds. Some theologians affirm that mercy is the greatest of
the attributes and perfections of God, and the Bible, Tradition and the
whole faith life of the People of God provide particular proofs of
this. It is not a question here of the perfection of the inscrutable
essence of God in the mystery of the divinity itself, but of the
perfection and attribute whereby man, in the intimate truth of his
existence, encounters the living God particularly closely and
particularly often. In harmony with Christ's words to Philip,112 the
"vision of the Father"-a vision of God through faith finds precisely in
the encounter with His mercy a unique moment of interior simplicity and
truth, similar to that which we discover in the parable of the prodigal
son.
"He who has seen me has seen the Father."113 The Church professes the
mercy of God, the Church lives by it in her wide experience of faith
and also in her teaching, constantly contemplating Christ,
concentrating on Him, on His life and on His Gospel, on His cross and
resurrection, on His whole mystery. Everything that forms the "vision"
of Christ in the Church's living faith and teaching brings us nearer to
the "vision of the Father" in the holiness of His mercy. The Church
seems in a particular way to profess the mercy of God and to venerate
it when she directs herself to the Heart of Christ. In fact, it is
precisely this drawing close to Christ in the mystery of His Heart
which enables us to dwell on this point-a point in a sense central and
also most accessible on the human level-of the revelation of the
merciful love of the Father, a revelation which constituted the central
content of the messianic mission of the Son of Man.
The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims
mercy-the most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the
Redeemer-and when she brings people close to the sources of the
Savior's mercy, of which she is the trustee and dispenser. Of great
significance in this area is constant meditation on the Word of God,
and above all conscious and mature participation in the Eucharist and
in the sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. The Eucharist brings us
ever nearer to that love which is more powerful than death: "For as
often as we eat this bread and drink this cup," we proclaim not only
the death of the Redeemer but also His resurrection, "until he comes"
in glory.114 The same Eucharistic rite, celebrated in memory of Him who
in His messianic mission revealed the Father to us by means of His
words and His cross, attests to the inexhaustible love by virtue of
which He desires always to be united with us and present in our midst,
coming to meet every human heart. It is the sacrament of Penance or
Reconciliation that prepares the way for each individual, even those
weighed down with great faults. In this sacrament each person can
experience mercy in a unique way, that is, the love which is more
powerful than sin. This has already been spoken of in the encyclical
Redemptor hominis; but it will be fitting to return once more to this
fundamental theme.
It is precisely because sin exists in the world, which "God so
loved...that he gave his only Son,"115 that God, who "is love,"116
cannot reveal Himself otherwise than as mercy. This corresponds not
only to the most profound truth of that love which God is, but also to
the whole interior truth of man and of the world which is man's
temporary homeland.
Mercy in itself, as a perfection of the infinite God, is also infinite.
Also infinite therefore and inexhaustible is the Father's readiness to
receive the prodigal children who return to His home. Infinite are the
readiness and power of forgiveness which flow continually from the
marvelous value of the sacrifice of the Son. No human sin can prevail
over this power or even limit it. On the part of man only a lack of
good will can limit it, a lack of readiness to be converted and to
repent, in other words persistence in obstinacy, opposing grace and
truth, especially in the face of the witness of the cross and
resurrection of Christ.
Therefore, the Church professes and proclaims conversion. Conversion to
God always consists in discovering His mercy, that is, in discovering
that love which is patient and kind117 as only the Creator and Father
can be; the love to which the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ"118 is faithful to the uttermost consequences in the history of
His covenant with man; even to the cross and to the death and
resurrection of the Son. Conversion to God is always the fruit of
the"rediscovery of this Father, who is rich in mercy.
Authentic knowledge of the God of mercy, the God of tender love, is a
constant and inexhaustible source of conversion, not only as a
momentary interior act but also as a permanent attitude, as a state of
mind. Those who come to know God in this way, who "see" Him in this
way, can live only in a state of being continually converted to Him.
They live, therefore, in statu conversionis; and it is this state of
conversion which marks out the most profound element of the pilgrimage
of every man and woman on earth in statu viatoris. It is obvious that
the Church professes the mercy of God, revealed in the crucified and
risen Christ, not only by the word of her teaching but above all
through the deepest pulsation of the life of the whole People of God.
By means of this testimony of life, the Church fulfills the mission
proper to the People of God, the mission which is a sharing in and, in
a sense, a continuation of the messianic mission of Christ Himself.
The contemporary Church is profoundly conscious that only on the basis
of the mercy of God will she be able to carry out the tasks that derive
from the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, and, in the first
place, the ecumenical task which aims at uniting all those who confess
Christ. As she makes many efforts in this direction, the Church
confesses with humility that only that love which is more powerful than
the weakness of human divisions can definitively bring about that unity
which Christ implored from the Father and which the Spirit never ceases
to beseech for us "with sighs too deep for words."119
14. The Church Seeks To Put Mercy into Practice
Jesus Christ taught that man not only receives and experiences the
mercy of God, but that he is also called "to practice mercy" towards
others: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."120 The
Church sees in these words a call to action, and she tries to practice
mercy. All the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount indicate the way
of conversion and of reform of life, but the one referring to those who
are merciful is particularly eloquent in this regard. Man attains to
the merciful love of God, His mercy, to the extent that he himself is
interiorly transformed in the spirit of that love towards his neighbor.
This authentically evangelical process is not just a spiritual
transformation realized once and for all: it is a whole lifestyle, an
essential and continuous characteristic of the Christian vocation. It
consists in the constant discovery and persevering practice of love as
a unifying and also elevating power despite all difficulties of a
psychological or social nature: it is a question, in fact, of a
merciful love which, by its essence, is a creative love. In reciprocal
relationships between persons merciful love is never a unilateral act
or process. Even in the cases in which everything would seem to
indicate that only one party is giving and offering, and the other only
receiving and taking (for example, in the case of a physician giving
treatment, a teacher teaching, parents supporting and bringing up their
children, a benefactor helping the needy), in reality the one who gives
is always also a beneficiary. In any case, he too can easily find
himself in the position of the one who receives, who obtains a benefit,
who experiences merciful love; he too can find himself the object of
mercy.
In this sense Christ crucified is for us the loftiest model,
inspiration and encouragement. When we base ourselves on this
disquieting model, we are able with all humility to show mercy to
others, knowing that Christ accepts it as if it were shown to
Himself.121 On the basis of this model, we must also continually purify
all our actions and all our intentions in which mercy is understood and
practiced in a unilateral way, as a good done to others. An act of
merciful love is only really such when we are deeply convinced at the
moment that we perform it that we are at the same time receiving mercy
from the people who are accepting it from us. If this bilateral and
reciprocal quality is absent, our actions are not yet true acts of
mercy, nor has there yet been fully completed in us that conversion to
which Christ has shown us the way by His words and example, even to the
cross, nor are we yet sharing fully in the magnificent source of
merciful love that has been revealed to us by Him.
Thus, the way which Christ showed to us in the Sermon on the Mount with
the beatitude regarding those who are merciful is much richer than what
we sometimes find in ordinary human opinions about mercy. These
opinions see mercy as a unilateral act or process, presupposing and
maintaining a certain distance between the one practicing mercy and the
one benefitting from it, between the one who does good and the one who
receives it. Hence the attempt to free interpersonal and social
relationships from mercy and to base them solely on justice. However,
such opinions about mercy fail to see the fundamental link between
mercy and justice spoken of by the whole biblical tradition, and above
all by the messianic mission of Jesus Christ. True mercy is, so to
speak, the most profound source of justice. If justice is in itself
suitable for "arbitration" between people concerning the reciprocal
distribution of objective goods in an equitable manner, love and only
love (including that kindly love that we call "mercy") is capable of
restoring man to Himself.
Mercy that is truly Christian is also, in a certain sense, the most
perfect incarnation of "equality" between people, and therefore also
the most perfect incarnation of justice as well, insofar as justice
aims at the same result in its own sphere. However, the equality
brought by justice is limited to the realm of objective and extrinsic
goods, while love and mercy bring it about that people meet one another
in that value which is man himself, with the dignity that is proper to
him. At the same time, "equality" of people through "patient and kind"
love122 does not take away differences: the person who gives becomes
more generous when he feels at the same time benefitted by the person
accepting his gift; and vice versa, the person who accepts the gift
with the awareness that, in accepting it, he too is doing good is in
his own way serving the great cause of the dignity of the person; and
this contributes to uniting people in a more profound manner.
Thus, mercy becomes an indispensable element for shaping mutual
relationships between people, in a spirit of deepest respect for what
is human, and in a spirit of mutual brotherhood. It is impossible to
establish this bond between people, if they wish to regulate their
mutual relationships solely according to the measure of justice. In
every sphere of interpersonal relationships justice must, so to speak,
be "corrected " to a considerable extent by that love which, as St.
Paul proclaims, "is patient and kind" or, in other words, possesses the
characteristics of that merciful love which is so much of the essence
of the Gospel and Christianity. Let us remember, furthermore, that
merciful love also means the cordial tenderness and sensitivity so
eloquently spoken of in the parable of the prodigal son,123 and also in
the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.124 Consequently,
merciful love is supremely indispensable between those who are closest
to one another: between husbands and wives, between parents and
children, between friends; and it is indispensable in education and in
pastoral work.
Its sphere of action, however, is not limited to this. If Paul VI more
than once indicated the civilization of love"125 as the goal towards
which all efforts in the cultural and social fields as well as in the
economic and political fields should tend. it must be added that this
good will never be reached if in our thinking and acting concerning the
vast and complex spheres of human society we stop at the criterion of
"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"126 and do not try to transform
it in its essence, by complementing it with another spirit. Certainly,
the Second Vatican Council also leads us in this direction, when it
speaks repeatedly of the need to make the world more human,127 and says
that the realization of this task is precisely the mission of the
Church in the modern world. Society can become ever more human only if
we introduce into the many-sided setting of interpersonal and social
relationships, not merely justice, but also that "merciful love" which
constitutes the messianic message of the Gospel.
Society can become "ever more human" only when we introduce into all
the mutual relationships which form its moral aspect the moment of
forgiveness, which is so much of the essence of the Gospel. Forgiveness
demonstrates the presence in the world of the love which is more
powerful than sin. Forgiveness is also the fundamental condition for
reconciliation, not only in the relationship of God with man, but also
in relationships between people. A world from which forgiveness was
eliminated would be nothing but a world of cold and unfeeling justice,
in the name of which each person would claim his or her own rights
vis-a- vis others; the various kinds of selfishness latent in man would
transform life and human society into a system of oppression of the
weak by the strong, or into an arena of permanent strife between one
group and another.
For this reason, the Church must consider it one of her principal
duties-at every stage of history and especially in our modern age-to
proclaim and to introduce into life the mystery of mercy, supremely
revealed in Jesus Christ. Not only for the Church herself as the
community of believers but also in a certain sense for all humanity,
this mystery is the source of a life different from the life which can
be built by man, who is exposed to the oppressive forces of the
threefold concupiscence active within him.128 It is precisely in the
name of this mystery that Christ teaches us to forgive always. How
often we repeat the words of the prayer which He Himself taught us,
asking "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us," which means those who are guilty of something in our
regard129 It is indeed difficult to express the profound value of the
attitude which these words describe and inculcate. How many things
these words say to every individual about others and also about
himself. The consciousness of being trespassers against each other goes
hand in hand with the call to fraternal solidarity, which St. Paul
expressed in his concise exhortation to "forbear one another in
love."130 What a lesson of humility is to be found here with regard to
man, with regard both to one's neighbor and to oneself What a school of
good will for daily living, in the various conditions of our existence
If we were to ignore this lesson, what would remain of any "humanist"
program of life and education?
Christ emphasizes so insistently the need to forgive others that when
Peter asked Him how many times he should forgive his neighbor He
answered with the symbolic number of "seventy times seven,"131 meaning
that he must be able to forgive everyone every time. It is obvious that
such a generous requirement of forgiveness does not cancel out the
objective requirements of justice. Properly understood, justice
constitutes, so to speak, the goal of forgiveness. In no passage of the
Gospel message does forgiveness, or mercy as its source, mean
indulgence towards evil, towards scandals, towards injury or insult. In
any case, reparation for evil and scandal, compensation for injury, and
satisfaction for insult are conditions for forgiveness.
Thus the fundamental structure of justice always enters into the sphere
of mercy. Mercy, however, has the power to confer on justice a new
content, which is expressed most simply and fully in forgiveness.
Forgiveness, in fact, shows that, over and above the process of
"compensation" and "truce" which is specific to justice, love is
necessary, so that man may affirm himself as man. Fulfillment of the
conditions of justice is especially indispensable in order that love
may reveal its own nature. In analyzing the parable of the prodigal
son, we have already called attention to the fact that he who forgives
and he who is forgiven encounter one another at an essential point,
namely the dignity or essential value of the person, a point which
cannot be lost and the affirmation of which, or its rediscovery, is a
source of the greatest joy.132
The Church rightly considers it her duty and the purpose of her mission
to guard the authenticity of forgiveness, both in life and behavior and
in educational and pastoral work. She protects it simply by guarding
its source, which is the mystery of the mercy of God Himself as
revealed in Jesus Christ.
The basis of the Church's mission, in all the spheres spoken of in the
numerous pronouncements of the most recent Council and in the
centuries-old experience of the apostolate, is none other than "drawing
from the wells of the Savior"133 this is what provides many guidelines
for the mission of the Church in the lives of individual Christians, of
individual communities, and also of the whole People of God. This
"drawing from the wells of the Savior" can be done only in the spirit
of that poverty to which we are called by the words and example of the
Lord: "You received without pay, give without pay."134 Thus, in all the
ways of the Church's life and ministry-through the evangelical poverty
of her-ministers and stewards and of the whole people which bears
witness to "the mighty works" of its Lord-the God who is "rich in
mercy" has been made still more clearly manifest.
VIII. THE PRAYER OF THE CHURCH IN OUR TIMES
15. The Church Appeals to the Mercy of God
The Church proclaims the truth of God's mercy revealed in the crucified
and risen Christ, and she professes it in various ways. Furthermore,
she seeks to practice mercy towards people through people, and she sees
in this an indispensable condition for solicitude for a better and
"more human" world, today and tomorrow. However, at no time and in no
historical period-especially at a moment as critical as our own-can the
Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the
many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it. Precisely
this is the fundamental right and duty of the Church in Christ Jesus,
her right and duty towards God and towards humanity. The more the human
conscience succumbs to secularization, loses its sense of the very
meaning of the word "mercy," moves away from God and distances itself
from the mystery of mercy, the more the Church has the right and the
duty to appeal to the God of mercy "with loud cries."135 These "loud
cries" should be the mark of the Church of our times, cries uttered to
God to implore His mercy, the certain manifestation of which she
professes and proclaims as having already come in Jesus crucified and
risen, that is, in the Paschal Mystery. It is this mystery which bears
within itself the most complete revelation of mercy, that is, of that
love which is more powerful than death, more powerful than sin and
every evil, the love which lifts man up when he falls into the abyss
and frees him from the greatest threats.
Modern man feels these threats. What has been said above in this regard
is only a rough outline. Modern man often anxiously wonders about the
solution to the terrible tensions which have built up in the world and
which entangle humanity. And if at times he lacks the courage to utter
the word "mercy," or if in his conscience empty of religious content he
does not find the equivalent, so much greater is the need for the
Church to utter his word, not only in her own name but also in the name
of all the men and women of our time.
Everything that I have said in the present document on mercy should
therefore be continually transformed into an ardent prayer: into a cry
that implores mercy according to the needs of man in the modern world.
May this cry be full of that truth about mercy which has found such
rich expression in Sacred Scripture and in Tradition, as also in the
authentic life of faith of countless generations of the People of God.
With this cry let us, like the sacred writers, call upon the God who
cannot despise anything that He has made,136 the God who is faithful to
Himself, to His fatherhood and His love. And, like the prophets, let us
appeal to that love which has maternal characteristics and which, like
a mother, follows each of her children, each lost sheep, even if they
should number millions, even if in the world evil should prevail over
goodness, even if contemporary humanity should deserve a new "flood" on
account of its sins, as once the generation of Noah did. Let us have
recourse to that fatherly love revealed to us by Christ in His
messianic mission, a love which reached its culmination in His cross,
in His death and resurrection. Let us have recourse to God through
Christ, mindful of the words of Mary's Magnificat, which proclaim mercy
"from generation to generation." Let us implore God's mercy for the
present generation. May the Church which, following the example of
Mary, also seeks to be the spiritual mother of mankind, express in this
prayer her maternal solicitude and at the same time her confident love,
that love from which is born the most burning need for prayer.
Let us offer up our petitions, directed by the faith, by the hope, and
by the charity which Christ has planted in our hearts. This attitude is
likewise love of God, whom modern man has sometimes separated far from
himself, made extraneous to himself, proclaiming in various ways that
God is "superfluous." This is, therefore, love of God, the insulting
rejection of whom by modern man we feel profoundly, and we are ready to
cry out with Christ on the cross: "Father, forgive them; for they know
not what they do."137 At the same time it is love of people, of all men
and women without any exception or division: without difference of
race, culture, language, or world outlook, without distinction between
friends and enemies. This is love for people-it desires every true good
for each individual and for every human community, every family, every
nation, every social group, for young people, adults, parents, the
elderly-a love for everyone, without exception. This is love, or rather
an anxious solicitude to ensure for each individual every true good and
to remove and drive away every sort of evil.
And, if any of our contemporaries do not share the faith and hope which
lead me, as a servant of Christ and steward of the mysteries of God,138
to implore God's mercy for humanity in this hour of history, let them
at least try to understand the reason for my concern. It is dictated by
love for man, for all that is human and which, according to the
intuitions of many of our contemporaries, is threatened by an immense
danger. The mystery of Christ, which reveals to us the great vocation
of man and which led me to emphasize in the encyclical Redemptor
hominis his incomparable dignity, also obliges me to proclaim mercy as
God's merciful love, revealed in that same mystery of Christ. It
likewise obliges me to have recourse to that mercy and to beg for it at
this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the
world, as we approach the end of the second millennium.
In the name of Jesus Christ crucified and risen, in the spirit of His
messianic mission, enduring in the history of humanity, we raise our
voices and pray that the Love which is in the Father may once again be
revealed at this stage of history, and that, through the work of the
Son and Holy Spirit, it may be shown to be present in our modern world
and to be more powerful than evil: more powerful than sin and death. We
pray for this through the intercession of her who does not cease to
proclaim "mercy...from generation to generation," and also through the
intercession of those for whom there have been completely fulfilled the
words of the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the merciful, for they
shall obtain mercy."139
In continuing the great task of implementing the Second Vatican
Council, in which we can rightly see a new phase of the self-
realization of the Church-in keeping with the epoch in which it has
been our destiny to live-the Church herself must be constantly guided
by the full consciousness that in this work it is not permissible for
her, for any reason, to withdraw into herself. The reason for her
existence is, in fact, to reveal God, that Father who allows us to
"see" Him in Christ.140 No matter how strong the resistance of human
history may be, no matter how marked the diversity of contemporary
civilization, no matter how great the denial of God in the human world,
so much the greater must be the Church's closeness to that mystery
which, hidden for centuries in God, was then truly shared with man, in
time, through Jesus Christ.
With my apostolic blessing.
Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on the thirtieth day of November, the
First Sunday of Advent, in the year 1980, the third of the pontificate.
JOHN PAUL II
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1. Eph. 2:4.
2. Cf. Jn. 1:18; Heb. 1:1f.
3. Jn. 14:8-9.
4. Eph. 2:4-5.
5. 2 Cor. 1:3.
6. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et spes, no. 22: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1042.
7. Cf. ibid
8. 1 Tm. 6:16.
9. Rom. 1:20.
10. Jn. 1:18.
11. 1 Tm. 6:16.
12. Ti. 3:4.
13. Eph. 2:4.
14. Cf. Gn. 1:28.
15. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et spes, no. 9: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1032.
16. 2 Cor. 1:3.
17. Mt. 6:4, 6, 18.
18. Cf. Eph. 3:18; also Lk. 11:5-13.
19. Lk. 4:18-19.
20. Lk. 7:19.
21. Lk. 7:22-23.
22. 1 Jn. 4:16
23. Eph. 2:4.
24. Lk. 15:11-32.
25. Lk. 10:30-37.
26. Mt. 18:23-35.
27. Mt. 18:12-14; Lk. 15:3-7.
28. Lk. 15:8-10.
29. Mt. 22:38.
30. Mt. 5:7.
31. Cf. Jgs. 3:7-9.
32. Cf. 1 Kgs. 8:22-53.
33. Cf. Mi. 7:18-20.
34. Cf. Is. 1:18; 51:4-16.
35. Cf. Bar. 2:11-3, 8.
36. Cf. Neh. 9.
37. Cf. e.g. Hos. 2:21-25 and 15;Is. 54:6-8.
38. Cf. Jer. 31:20; Lz. 39:25-29.
39. Cf. 2 Sm. 11; 12; 24:10.
40. Job passim.
41. Est.. 4:17k ff.
42. Cf. e.g. Neh. 9:30-32; Tb. 3:2-3, 11-12; 8:16-17; 1 Mc. 4:24.
43. Cf. Ex. 3:7f.
44. Cf. Is. 63:9.
45. Ex. 34:6.
46. Cf. Nm. 14:18; 2 Chr. 30:9; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86(85); Wis. 15:1; Sir. 2:11; Jl. 2:13.
47. Cf. Is. 63:16.
48. Cf. Ex. 4:22.
49. Cf. Hos. 2:3.
50. Cf. Hos. 11:7-9; Jer. 31:20; Is. 54:7f.
51. Cf. Ps. 103(102) and 145(144).
52. In describing mercy, the books of the Old Testament use two
expressions in particular, each having a different semantic nuance.
First there is the term hesed, which indicates a profound attitude of
"goodness." When this is established between two individuals, they do
not just wish each other well; they are also faithful to each other by
virtue of an interior commitment, and therefore also by virtue of a
faithfulness to themselves. Since hesed also means "grace" or "love,"
this occurs precisely on the basis of this fidelity. The fact that the
commitment in question has not only a moral character but almost a
juridical one makes no difference. When in the Old Testament the word
hesed is used of the Lord, this always occurs in connection with the
covenant that God established with Israel. This covenant was, on God's
part, a gift and a grace for Israel. Nevertheless, since, in harmony
with the covenant entered into, God had made a commitment to respect
it, hesed also acquired in a certain sense a legal content. The
juridical commitment on God's part ceased to oblige whenever Israel
broke the covenant and did not respect its conditions. But precisely at
this point, hesed, in ceasing to be a juridical obligation, revealed
its deeper aspect: it showed itself as what it was at the beginning,
that is, as love that gives, love more powerful than betrayal, grace
stronger than sin.
This fidelity vis-a-vis the unfaithful "daughter of my people"(cf. Lam.
4:3, 6) is, in brief, on God's part, fidelity to Himself. This becomes
obvious in the frequent recurrence together of the two terms hesed we'e
met (= grace and fidelity), which could be considered a case of
hendiadys (cf. e.g. Ex. 34:6; 2 Sm. 2:6; 15:20; Ps. 25[24]:10;
40[39]:11-12; 85[84]:11; 138[137]:2; Mi. 7:20). "It is not for your
sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my
holy name" (Ez. 36:22). Therefore Israel, although burdened with guilt
for having broken the covenant, cannot lay claim to God's hesed on the
basis of (legal) justice; yet it can and must go on hoping and trusting
to obtain it, since the God of the covenant is really "responsible for
his love." The fruits of this love are forgiveness and restoration to
grace, the reestablishment of the interior covenant.
The second word which in the terminology of the Old Testament serves to
define mercy is rahamim. This has a different nuance from that of
hesed. While hesed highlights the marks of fidelity to self and of
"responsibility for one's own love" (which are in a certain sense
masculine characteristics), rahamim, in its very root, denotes the love
of a mother (rehem = mother's womb). From the deep and original
bond-indeed the unity-that links a mother to her child there springs a
particular relationship to the child, a particular love. Of this love
one can say that it is completely gratuitous, not merited, and that in
this aspect it constitutes an interior necessity: an exigency of the
heart. It is, as it were, a "feminine" variation of the masculine
fidelity to self expressed by hesed. Against this psychological
background, rahamim generates a whole range of feelings, including
goodness and tenderness, patience and understanding, that is, readiness
to forgive.
The Old Testament attributes to the Lord precisely these
characteristics when it uses the term rahamim in speaking of Him. We
read in Isaiah: "Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should
have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I
will not forget you" (Is. 49:15). This love, faithful and invincible
thanks to the mysterious power of motherhood, is expressed in the Old
Testament texts in various ways: as salvation from dangers, especially
from enemies; also as forgiveness of sins-of individuals and also of
the whole of Israel; and finally in readiness to fulfill the
(eschatological) promise and hope, in spite of human infidelity, as we
read in Hosea: "I will heal their faithlessness, I will love them
freely" (Hos. 14:5).
In the terminology of the Old Testament we also find other expressions,
referring in different ways to the same basic content. But the two
terms mentioned above deserve special attention. They clearly show
their original anthropomorphic aspect: in describing God's mercy, the
biblical authors use terms that correspond to the consciousness and
experience of their contemporaries. The Greek terminology in the
Septuagint translation does not show as great a wealth as the Hebrew:
therefore it does not offer all the semantic nuances proper to the
original text. At any rate, the New Testament builds upon the wealth
and depth that already marked the Old.
In this way, we have inherited from the Old Testament-as it were in a
special synthesis-not only the wealth of expressions used by those
books in order to define God's mercy, but also a specific and obviously
anthropomorphic "psychology" of God: the image of His anxious love,
which in contact with evil, and in particular with the sin of the
individual and of the people, is manifested as mercy. This image is
made up not only of the rather general content of the verb hanan but
also of the content of hesed and rahamim. The term hanan expresses a
wider concept: it means in fact the manifestation of grace, which
involves, so to speak, a constant predisposition to be generous,
benevolent and merciful. In addition to these basic semantic elements,
the Old Testament concept of mercy is also made up of what is included
in the verb hamal, which literally means "to spare" (a defeated enemy)
but also "to show mercy and compassion," and in consequence forgiveness
and remission of guilt. There is also the term hus, which expresses
pity and compassion, but especially in the affective sense. These terms
appear more rarely in the biblical texts to denote mercy. In addition,
one must note the word 'emet already mentioned: it means primarily
"solidity, security" (in the Greek of the Septuagint: "truth") and then
"fidelity," land in this way it seems to link up with the semantic
content proper to the term hesed.
53. Ps. 40(39):11; 98(97):2f.; Is. 45:21; 51:5, 8; 56:1.
54. Wis. 11:24.
55. 1 Jn. 4:16.
56. Jer. 31:3.
57. Is. 54:10.
58. Jon. 4:2, 11; Ps. 145(144):9; Sir. 18:8-14; Wis. 11:23-12:1.
59. Jn. 14:9.
60. In both places it is a case of hesed, i..e., the fidelity that God
manifests to His own love for the people, fidelity to he promises that
will find their definitive fulfillment precisely in the motherhood of
the Mother of God (cf. Lk. 1:49-54).
61. Cf. Lk. 1:72. Here too it is a case of mercy in the meaning of
hesed, insofar as in the following sentences, in which Zechariah speaks
of the "tender mercy of our God," there is clearly expressed the second
meaning, namely, rahamim (Latin translation: viscera misericordiae),
which rather identifies God's mercy with a mother's love.
62. Cf. Lk. 15:14-32.
63. Lk. 15:18-19.
64. Lk. 15:20.
65. Lk. 15:32.
66. Cf. Lk. 15:3-6.
67. Cf. Lk. 15:8-9.
68. 1 Cor. 13:4-8.
69. Cf. Rom. 12:21.
70. Cf. the liturgy of the Easter Vigil: the Exsultet.
71. Acts 10:38.
72. Mt. 9:35.
73. Cf. Mk. 15:37; Jn. 19:30.
74. Is. 53:5
75. 2 Cor. 5:21.
76. Ibid.
77. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.
78. Jn. 3:16.
79. Cf. Jn. 14:9.
80. Mt. 10:28.
81. Phil. 2:8.
82. 2 Cor. 5:21.
83. Cf. 1 Cor. 15:54-55.
84. Cf. Lk. 4:18-21.
85. Cf. Lk. 7:20-23.
86. Cf. Is. 35:5; 61:1-3.
87. 1 Cor. 15:4.
88. Rv. 21:1.
89. Rv. 21:4.
90. Cf. Rv. 21:4.
91. Rv. 3:20.
92. Cf. Mt. 24:35.
93. Cf. Rv. 3:20.
94. Mt. 25:40.
95. Mt. 5:7.
96. Jn. 14:9.
97. Rom. 8:32.
98. Mk. 12:27.
99. Jn. 20:19-23.
100. Ps. 89(88):2.
101. Lk. 1:50.
102. Cf. 2 Cor. 1:21-22.
103. Lk. 1:50.
104. Cf. Ps..85(84):11.
105. Lk. 1:50.
106. Cf. Lk. 4:18.
107. Cf. Lk. 7:22.
108. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, no. 62: AAS 57 1965), p. 63.
109. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et spes, no. 10: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1032.
110. Ibid
111. Mt. 5:38.
112. Cf. Jn. 14:9-10.
113. Jn. 14:9.
114. Cf. 1 Cor. 11:26; acclamation in the Roman Missal.
115. Jn. 3:16.
116. 1 Jn. 4:8.
117. Cf. 1 Cor. 13:4.
118. 2 Cor. 1:3.
119. Rom. 8:26.
120. Mt. 5:7.
121. Cf. Mt. 25:34-40.
122. Cf. 1 Cor. 13:4.
123. Cf. Lk. 15:11-32.
124. Cf. Lk. 15:1-10.
125. Cf. Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, XIII (1975), p. 1568 (close of the Holy Year, December 25, 1975).
126. Mt. 5:38.
127. Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
Gaudium et spes, no. 40 AAS 58 (1966), pp.1057-1059; Pope Paul VI:
Apostolic Exhortation Paterna cum benevolentia, in particular nos. 1-6:
AAS 67 (1975), pp. 7-9, 17-23.
128. Cf. 1 Jn. 2:16.
129. Mt. 6:12.
130. Eph. 4:2; cf. Gal. 6:2.
131. Mt. 18:22.
132. Cf. Lk. 15:32.
133. Cf. Is. 12:3.
134. Mt. 10:8.
135. Cf. Heb. 5:7.
136. Cf. Wis. 11:24; Ps. 145(144):9; Gn. 1:31.
137. Lk. 23:34.
138. Cf. 1 Cor. 4:1.
139. Mt. 5:7.
140. Cf. Jn. 14:9.