





John Paul II



DIVES IN MISERICORDIA   ON THE MERCY OF GOD


His Holiness John Paul II To the Bishops, Priests, and Faithful of the
entire Catholic Church concerning the Divine Mercy.

To the Venerable Brothers, Beloved Sons and Daughters, Health and
Apostolic Benediction.

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 :he paschal supper, which was followed by the
events of those holy days during which confirmaion 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]

2. 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 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.

3. 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
way 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.

4. 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, ehe
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.

5. 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
to himself," can only be achieved through an ever more mature reference
to the Father and his love.

6. Although God "dwells in unapproachable light"[8] he speaks to man by
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]

7. 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.

8. 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]

9. 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 leave no room for mercy.

10. 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]

11. 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 to the United Nations, to UNESCO, to FAO and elsewhere), the
church must at the same time examine them in the light of the truth
received from God.

12. 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.

13. In the present encyclical I 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.

14. 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 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]

15. I therefore wish these considerations to bring this mystery close 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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]

19. 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."

20. Christ, then, reveals God who is Father, who is "love," as St. John
will express it in his first letter;[22] 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 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.

21. 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 every 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."

22. 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.

23. 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
expressed 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]

24. 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."

25. (4) 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 agelong history a special
experience of the mercy of God. This experience was social and communal,
as well as individual and interior.

26. 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]

27. 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.

28. 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 guilt;[39] .Job too, after his rebellion, turns
to him in his tremendous misfortune;[40] 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]

29. 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.

30. 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 himself[46] and to
beseech his forgiveness.

31. 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 toward those who are his own: He is their Father,[47] for Israel is
his firstborn son;[48] the Lord is also the bridegroom of her whose new
name the prophet proclaims: Ruharmah, "beloved" or "she has obtained
pity."[49]

32. 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]

33. 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]

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. Love, by its very nature, excludes hatred and ill will toward 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]

38. 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]

39. 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.

40. "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]

41. 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] Afterward, 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.6l

42. 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.[61] 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.

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. The analogy turns clearly toward 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 w hich 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.

46. Hc seems not to he conscious of it even now, w hen he says to
himself: "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to
spare, hut 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 in 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.

47. 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]

48. 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.

49. 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.

50. 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.

51. 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.

52. 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.

53. 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.

54. 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.

55. 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 toward his son, that generosity which so
angers the elder son.

56. 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]

57. In the same Chapter 15 of Luke's Gospel, we read the parable of the
sheep that was found[66] 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.

58. 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 St. Paul was to write: "Love is
patient and kind . . . Iove 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]

59. 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."

60. 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.

61. 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.

62. 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
parricular 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.

63. 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.

64. 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]

65. The genuine face of mercy has to be ever revealed anew. In spite of
many prejudices, mercy seems particularly necessary for our times.

66. 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.

67. 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" (which gained for us so great a redeemer),[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 hdelity of the Creator and Father toward human
beings, created in his image and chosen from "the beginning," in this
Son, for grace and glory.

68. The events of Good Friday and, even before that, the 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]

69. 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]

70. 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.

71. 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 toward 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.

72. 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 to 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.

73. 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.

74. And yet the divine dimension of the paschal mvsterv goes still
deeper. The cross on Calvary, the cross upon which Christ conducts his
hnal 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.

75. The cross of Christ on Calvary stands beside the path of that
admirabile 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.

76. This covenant, as old as man--it goes back to the very mystery of
creation--and afterward 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.

77. 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 hrst 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." Thev will repeat this message to
the others and will be witnesses to the risen Christ.

78. 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,
w ho 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]

79. 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]

80. 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]

81. 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.

82. 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]

83. 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.

84. 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]

85. 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.

86. 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.

87. 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?"

88. 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" (admirabile commercium) contained therein?

89. 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?

90. 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]

91. 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]

92. In his resutrection 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]

93. 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" (The favors of
the Lord I will sing forever).[100]

94. 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 onward 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]

95. Mary is also the one who obtained mercy in a particular and
exceptional uay, 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.

96. 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.

97. 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.

98. 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.

99. 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 Nazareth[106] and then in response to the question of
the messengers of John the Baptist.[107]

100. 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
thc 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.

101. "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]

102. 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
millenium and that profoundly feels the change that is occurring in
history.

103. 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 held of science and
technology and in that of social and cultural life. Man has extended his
power over nature and has acquired deeper knouledge 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.

104. 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.

105. 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.

106. 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 untrammeled 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
things 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]

107 Toward 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 has not been eliminated by all this progress? What is the purpose
of these achievements, purchased at so high a price?"[110]

108. In the span of the 15 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.

109. 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.

110. 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 pow er
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, ue cannot say that these examples belong only to
the past.

111. 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 abilitv
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.

112. 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.

113. 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.

114. The state of inequality between individuals and between nations not
only still exists; it is increasing. It still happens that side by side
uith 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.

115. This picture of today's world in uhich there is so much evil, both
physical and moral, so as to make 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.

116. And, although there is no lack of people trving 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.

117. It is not difficult to see that in the modern world the sense of
justice has been awakening 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.

118. 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 precisel this spirit.

119. 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 hands over justice, such as spite, hatred and even
cruelty.

120. 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 for 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.

121. 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.

122. It has been precisely historical experience that, among other
things, has led to the formulation of the saying: "Summum ius, summa
iniuria" (The greatest justice, the greatest harm). 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 w hich
condition the very order of justice, powers which are still more profound.

123. 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.

124. In connection with this picture of our generation, a picture which
cannot fail to cause profound anxiety, there comes to mind once more
those words which, by reason of the incar nation 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 the footsteps of the tradition of the Old and the New
Covenant, and above all of Jesus Christ himself and his apostles.

125. 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 hrst 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 of both 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.

126. 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.

127. 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.

128. "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.

129. 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.

130. 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.

131. 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.

132. 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.

133. It is precisely because sin exists in the world, which "God so loves
. . . 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.

134. 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.

135. 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 kind[117] 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.

136. 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.

137. It is obvious that the church professes the mercy of God, revealed
in the crucified and risen Christ, not only bv the word of her teaching
but above all through the deepest pulsation of the life of the w hole
people of God. By means of this testimony of life, the church fulfills
the mission proper to the people of God, the mission w hich is a sharing
in and, in a sense, a continuation of the messianic mission of Christ
himself.

138. 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 direc tion, the church
confesses with humility that only that love which is more powerful than
the weakness of human divisions can definitely 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]

139. Jesus Christ taught that man not only receives and experiences the
mercy of God, but that he is also called "to practice mercy" toward
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 toward his
neighbor.

140. 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 voca tion. It
consists in the constant discovery and persevering practice of love as a
unifying and also elevating power despite all difficulties of a
pyschological or social nature: it is a question, in fact, of a merciful
love which, by its essence, is a creative love.

141. 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 .

142. 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 unilatcral
way, as a good done to others.

143. 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.

144. 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 benefiting 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.

145. 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.

146. 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, w hile
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.

147. At the same time, "equality" of people through "patient and kind"
love[122] does not take away differences: the person who gives becomes
more generous when he feels at the same time benefited by the person who
accepting his gift; and vice versa, the person who accepts the gift with
awareness that in accepting it, he too is doing good 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.

148. 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.

149. 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 husbands and wives, between parents and children,
between friends; and it is indispensable in education and in pastoral
work.

150. Its sphere of action, however, is not limited to this. If Paul Vl
more than once indicated the "civilization of love"[125] as the goal
toward 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.

151. 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.

152. 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.

153. 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.

154. 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]

155. 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," w hich means those who are guilty of something
in our regard.[129] 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, w hich St. Paul expressed in
his concise exhortation to "forbear one another in love."[130]

156. 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?

157. 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
toward evil, toward scandals, toward injury or insult. In any case
reparation for evil and scandal, compensation for injury, and
satisfaction for insult are conditions for forgiveness.

158. 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 u hich cannot be lost
and the affirmation of w hich, or its rediscovery, is a source of the
greatest joy.[132]

159. 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.

160. The basis of the church's mission, in all the spheres spokcn 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 the whole people of God.

161. 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

162. 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 toward people through people,
and she sees in this an indispensable condition for solicitude for a
better and "more human" world, today and tomorrow.

163. 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 ]esus, her right and duty toward God and
toward 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]

164. These "loud cries" should be the mark of the church of our rimes,
cries uttered to God to implore his mercy, the certain manifestation of w
hich she professes and proclaims as having already come in ]esus
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.

165 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 this word, not only in her own name but also in the
name of all the men and women of our time.

166. 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.

167. 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.

168. 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.

169. Let us offer up our petitions, directed by the faith, by the hope
and by the chairty 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]

170. 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.

171. 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.

172. In the name of ]esus 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]

173. 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 ]esus
Christ.

With my apostolic blessing.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, November 30 the First Sunday of Advent, in
the year 1980, the third of the pontificate.

Joannes Paulus pp. II


ENDNOTES

1. Eph. 2:4.

2. Cf. Jn. 1:18; Heb. I:lf.

3. Jn. 14:8-9.

4. Eph. 2:4-5

5. 2 Cor 1:3.

6. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern Word, Guadium et
Spes 22:AAS 58 (1966), p. 1042.

7. Cf. ibid.

8. I Tm. 6:16.

9. Rom. 1:20.

10. Jn. 1:18.

11. I Tm. 6:16.

12. Ti. 3:4.

13. Eph.2:4.

14. Cf. Gn. 1:28.

15. GS 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., :22-23.

22. I 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; Ez. 39:25-29.

39. Cf. 2 Sm. 11; 12; 24:10.

40. Jb. passim.

41. Est. 4:17(k) 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.[7]

45. Ex.34:6.

46. Cf. Nm. 14:18; 2 Chr. 30:9; Neh. 9:17; P[5]. 86 (85); Wis.

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, rahamin
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 sucking 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 very 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, and 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. I 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 the 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: visera misencordiae), 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. I 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. I 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. I Cor. 15:4.

88. Rv. 21:1.

89. Rv. 2 1 :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, 62:AAS 1965,p.63.

109. GS, 10:AAS 58 (1966), p. 1032.

110. Ibid.

111. Mt. 5:38.

112. Cf. Jn. 14:9-10.

113. Jn. 14:9.

114. Cf. I Cor. 11:26; acclamation in the Roman Missal.

115. Jn. 3:16.

116. I Jn. 4:8.

117. Cf. I Cor. 13:4

118. 2 Cor. 1:3.

119. Rom. 8:26.

120. Mt. 5:7.

121. Cf. Mt. 25:34-40.

122. Cf. I Cor. 13:4.

123. Cf. Lk. 15:11-32.

124. Cf. Lk. 15:1-10.

125. Cf. Insegnamenti di Paolo Vl, Xlll (1975), p. 1568 (close of Holy
Year, Dec. 25, 1975).

126. Mt 5:38.

127. Cf. GS. 40 AAS 58 (1966), pp. 1057-1059; Pope Paul Vl: apostolic
exhortation Patema cum Benevolentia, in particular nos. 1-6:AAS 67
(1975), pp. 7-9, 17-23.

128. Cf. I 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. I Cor. 4:1.

139. Mt. 5:7.

140. Cf. Jn. 14:9.

