Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—The Georgia Bulletin, January 1,1981
A Study Of The Mercy Of God
COMPILED BY THEA JARVIS
On Dec. 2, 1980, Pope John Paul II issued his second Papal
encyclical, "Dives in Misericordia” (Rich in Mercy/. The following
passages have been excerpted from that encyclical. Pull copies of
the text are available through Notre Dame Bookstore (458-1779)
and Trinity Bookstore (255-0530).
HE WHO SEES ME SEES THE FATHER (CF. JOHN 14:9)
1. The Revelation of Mercy
It is “God, who is rich in mercy” 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.” . . . Man and man’s lofty calling are revealed in Christ
through the revelation of the mystery of the Father and
his love . . .
2. The Incarnation of Mercy
... in Christ and through Christ, God also becomes
especially visible in his mercy . . . (Christ) himself makes
(mercy) 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.”
The present-day mentality .. . 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 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 . . .
The truth, revealed in Christ, about God the “Father of
mercies,” 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 . . .
THE MESSIANIC MESSAGE
3. When Christ Began to Do and to Teach
. . . Especially through his life-style 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 . . .
Christ then, reveals God who is Father, who is “love”
... Christ reveals God “rich in mercy” ... This truth is
not just the subject of a teaching; it is a reality made
present to us by Christ. Making the Father present as love
and mercy is, in Christ’s own consciousness, the
fundamental touchstone of his mission as the Messiah . . .
. .. 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 OLD TESTAMENT
4 . . . 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 . . .
. . . the Old Testament teaches that, although justice is
an authentic virtue in man, and in God signifies
transcendent perfection, nevertheless love is “greater”
than justice: greater in the sense that it is primary and
fundamental. Love . . . conditions justice and, in the final
analysis, justice serves love . . .
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON
5. An Analogy 6. Particular Concentration on
Human Dignity
.. . 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 . . .
■ iem****"”'*' *
POPE HONORS A “MAN OF MERCY,”
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who received the Nobel
Peace Prize for his defense of human rights in
Argentina.
THE PASCHAL MYSTERY
7. Mercy Revealed in the Cross and Resurrection
... If, in fact, the reality of the redemption, in its
human dimension, reveals the unheard-of greatness of
man ... at the same time the divine dimension of the
redemption enables us . . . to uncover the depth of that
love which does not recoil before the extraordinary
sacrifice of the Son, in order to satisfy the fidelity of the
creator and Father towards human beings, created in his
image and chosen from “the beginning,” in this Son, for
grace and glory . . .
The divine dimension of redemption is put into effect
not only by bringing justice to bear upon sin, but also by
restoring to love the 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 . ..
Believing in the crucified Son means “seeing the
Father,” 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 . . .
8. Love More Powerful Than Death, More
Powerful Than Sin
. . . the cross of Christ, on which the Son,
consubstantial with the Father, renders full justice to
God, is also a radical revelation of mercy, or rather of the
love that goes against what constitutes the very root of
evil in the history of man: against sin and death .. .
The paschal mystery is Christ at the summit of the
revelation of the inscrutable mystery of God . . .
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... is
to be everlastingly confirmed as more powerful than
sin . . .
9. Mother of Mercy
. . . Mary... 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 . . .
It was precisely this “merciful” love, which is
manifested above all in contact with moral and physical
evil. . . 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 . . .
“MERCY . . . FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
10. An Image of Our Generation
We have every right to believe that our generation too
was included in the words of the mother of God when she
glorified that mercy shared in “from generation to
generation” by those who allow themselves to be guided
by the fear of God . ..
11. Sources of Uneasiness
. .. (The) picture of today’s world in which there is so
much evil both physical and moral, so as to make of it a
world entangled in contradictions and tensions, and at the
same time full of threats to human freedom, conscience
and religion - this picture explains the uneasiness felt by
contemporary man . . . This uneasiness concerns . . . the
fundamental problems of all human existence. It is linked
with the very sense of man’s existence in the world, and is
an uneasiness for the future of man and all humanity; it
demands decisive solutions, which now seem to be forcing
themselves upon the human race.
12. Is Justice Enough?
It is not difficult to see that in the modem world the
sense of justice has been reawakening on a vast scale . ..
The church shares with the people of our time this
profound and ardent desire for a life which is just in every
aspect...
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 ... 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 . . .
THE MERCY OF GOD IN THE MISSION
OF THE CHURCH
. .. The church of our time . . . must become more
particularly and profoundly conscious of the need to bear
witness in her whole mission to God’s mercy . . .
13. The Church Professes the Mercy of
God and Proclaims It
The church must profess and proclaim God’s mercy in
all its truth, as it has been handed down to us by
revelation...
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 ...
Therefore, the church professes and proclaims
conversion. Conversion to God always consists in
discovering his mercy...
Authentic knowledge of the God of mercy, the God of
tender love, is a constant and inexhaustible source of
conversion, not only as a momentary interior act but also
as a permanent attitude, as a state of mind ...
14. The Church Seeks to Put Mercy into Practice
Jesus Christ taught that man not only receives and
experiences the mercy of God, but that he is also called
“to practice Mercy” towards others: “Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy ...”
This authentically evangelical process is not just a
spiritual transformation realized once and for all: it is a
whole life-style, an essential and continuous characteristic
of the Christian vocation ...
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 ... 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 ...
THE PRAYER OF THE CHURCH IN OUR TIMES
15. The Church Appeals to the Mercy of God
The church proclaims the truth of God’s mercy
revealed in the crucified and risen Christ, and she
professes it in various ways. Furthermore, she seeks to
“The truth, revealed in Christ, about God
the “Father of Mercies,’ 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...”
practice mercy towards people through people, and she
sees in this an indispensable condition for solicitude for a
better and “more human” world, today and tomorrow.
However, at no time and in no historical period -
especially at a moment as critical as our own - can the
church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of
God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon
humanity and threaten it. Precisely this is the
fundamental right and duty of the church in Christ Jesus,
her right and duty towards God and towards humanity.
The more the human conscience succumbs to
secularization, loses its sense of the very meaning of the
word “mercy” moves away from God and distances itself
from the mystery of mercy, the more the church has the
right and duty to appeal to the God of mercy “with loud
cries...”
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 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. ..
Joannes Paulus II
Soundings —
(Continued from page 1)
the way, he says there are
more handguns in
Brooklyn than on the
Polish border) Two
15-year-olds are firing at
each other from separate
doorways. To her, it is
another Kojak drama. Her
mother finds her with two
bullets in her head. One
from each gun.
At last the gun lobby is
losing. Sixty-seven percent
of the American people
now support hand gun
control. If you remind
your Washington politician
of that fast growing figure,
he just might help us catch
up with the rest of the
world. We might do it in
1981.
J.R. was rootin-tootin-
-shootin fun. Handguns are
not. They are deadly
serious.
Theologians Assess Papal Letter—
(Continued from page 1)
But he praised a
lengthy footnote to the
document (No.52) for its
commentary on God as
both father and mother.
Father Dominic
Maruca, a Jesuit from the
order’s Maryland province
who teaches at the
Gregorian University’s
Institute of Spirituality,
also praised the footnote
and said it “should delight
women.”
But rejecting the idea
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that the encyclical was
intended as a political
commentary, he said he
thought “the pope took
great pains to avoid
politicizing it.”
He said Pope John
wanted to tell Catholics to
“always affect changes on
the world scale, but that
the changes have to start
from the human heart.”
“I think it is a mistake
to interpret it as a political
statement rather than a
profoundly spiritual one,
although it may have
political corollaries,”
Father Maruca added.
But he admitted that
readers untrained in
philosophy “may be put
off by its length and its
demanding style and
philosophical language.”
Father Maruca
recommended that
newspaper editors publish
the document in small
sections to help readers to
absorb it. The starting
place should be Pope John
Paul’s commentary on the
prodigal son in chapter
four, he said.
A staff member at the
Gregorian’s Biblical
Institute disagreed with
that assessment of the
difficulty of the
document, however. “It’s
more concrete, less
formal” than previous
encyclicals, he said. “The
pope is talking to ordinary
people, and I think that
makes it easier than most
encyclicals.”
(In the United States,
Father Richard McBrien,
chairman of the theology
department at the
University of Notre Dame,
called the encyclical “a
fine, biblically based
meditation on the nature
of mercy, which shows us
what we already know,
that the pope is a man of
learning and theological
sensitivity who can handle
serious theological
questions.”
(But Father McBrien
added, the encyclical “lays
itself open to the cynical
response that the pope is
extolling mercy but not
connecting that with
instances in the church in
which mercy is not being
practiced.” The theologian
cited the situations of
divorced and remarried
Catholics and of priests
who are unable to exercise
their ministry when they
marry.
(“It is not an encyclical
that makes us stand up
and take notice,” Father
McBrien said. “It does not
connect specifically with
issues in society and the
church. I would have liked
an encyclical which would
have admitted that we
have work to do in our
own community.”
(“The last thing you
find in the hearts of many
conservative Catholics is
mercy,” said Father
McBrien, citing some
nationally-circulated
Catholic newspapers and
letters to the editor in
various diocesan
newspapers. “There is a
mean streak in some
American Catholics that is
inconsistent with
everything the pope is
saying in the encyclical,”
he said, but nothing in the
encyclical would make
such people feel they were
being reproached.
(The encyclical is
“consistent with the
pope’s approach, which is
not to apply his vision of
the Gospel in the world to
the church,” Father
McBrien said. He said the
pope tends to see more
sharply what the church is
calling the world to do
than what the members of
the church are called to do
as a sign to the world.)
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