My Dear People,

            God’s mercy is the greatest expression of His love because it shows the total gratuitousness of God’s love towards the sinner. Instead of punishing him, He forgives him and gives him life. The words: “God, who is rich in mercy” have great theological and spiritual depth.  They are a summary of all of St. Paul’s teachings about God’s approach to people who are under the rule of sin, and who are “By nature children of wrath.” 

Pope John Paul II chose these words of Scripture—dives in misericordia—as the title of one of his encyclicals. The encyclical explores the divine dimension of the mystery of Redemption.  Here is the Pope’s summary of the biblical teaching on mercy: 

          “The concept of ‘mercy’ in the Old Testament has a long and rich history. It is significant that in their preaching, the prophets link mercy, which they often refer to because of people’s sin, but, 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). 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. In the preaching of the prophets, mercy signifies a special power of love, which prevails over sin and infidelity of the chosen people. The Old Testament encourages people suffering from misfortune, especially those weighed down by sin—as the whole of Israel, which had entered into the covenant with God—to appeal for mercy and thus enable them to count upon it. (Dives in misericordia, 4). 
In the New Testament also there are many references to God’s mercy, sometimes very touching ones, like the parable of the prodigal son. Others take a more dramatic form, for example, Christ’s sacrifice, the supreme expression of the love of God, which is stronger than death and sin. “The Cross of Christ, on which the Son consubstantial with the Father, renders full injustice 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 power of God works in the Christian in a way similar to that in which it worked in Christ. St. Paul here uses almost the same language to show how radical is the change produced in men by Christ’s salvation. 

Just as a dead person is unable to bring himself back to life, so those who are dead through sin cannot obtain grace, supernatural life, by their own effort. Only Christ, by means of the Redemption, offers us that new life which begins with justification and ends with resurrection and eternal happiness in heaven. 

The Apostle is speaking here of that life of grace, and therefore of our future resurrection and glorification with Christ in heaven. He refers to this as if it were an accomplished fact, and the reason he does so is this: Jesus Christ is our head, and we form one body with him, (Gal 3:28), and therefore we share in the head’s condition. 

Christ, after His resurrection, sits at the right hand of the Father. “The body of Christ, which is the Church,” St Augustine comments, “must be at the right hand, that is, in the glory of heaven. As the Apostle says: 'we have been raised up with Him and made to sit with Him in heaven.’  Even though our body is not yet there, our hope is already placed there” (De Agone Christiano, 26).

[passages taken from Navarre Bible Commentary]

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente