Early in his pontificate, Blessed John Paul II, of happy memory, wrote an encyclical about God the Father entitled On the Mercy of God (Dives in Misericordia, 1980). It is from the first line that encyclicals receive their names, which in this case states: "It is ‘God, who is rich in mercy’ whom Jesus Christ has revealed to us as Father" (n.1). A purview of passages from this beautiful document can be at once instructive and inspirational as we reflect on the Divine Mercy that is so central to the Easter mysteries.
"In Christ and through Christ, God becomes especially visible in His mercy…Christ confers on the whole of the Old Testament tradition about God’s mercy a definitive meaning…He Himself makes it incarnate and personifies it. He Himself, in a certain sense, is mercy" (n.2).
"Jesus makes mercy one of the principal themes of His preaching" [e.g. the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, the Merciless Servant, etc.]. "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’…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" (n.3).
"In the preaching of the prophets, mercy signifies a special power of love, which prevails over the sin and infidelity of the chosen people…Both physical evil and moral evil, namely sin, cause the sons and daughters of Israel to turn to the Lord and beseech His mercy…Mercy is the content of intimacy with their Lord, the content of their dialogue with Him…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" (n.4).
"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-à-vis the reality of the evil that is in the world" (n.7). The cross of Christ…is also a radical revelation of mercy…The cross is like a touch of eternal love upon the most painful wounds of man’s earthly existence…Love must be revealed above all as mercy and must also be actualized as mercy…Do not the words of the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,’ constitute, in a certain sense, a synthesis of the whole of the Good News?...The paschal Christ is the definitive incarnation of mercy, its living sign" (n.8).
"The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy—the most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the Redeemer…In reality the one who gives is always also a beneficiary…In this sense Christ crucified is for us the loftiest model, inspiration and encouragement…On the basis of this model, we must also continually purify all our actions and all our intentions in which mercy is understood and practiced in a unilateral way, as a good done to others…Society can become ever more human only if we introduce…that ‘merciful love’ which constitutes the messianic message of the Gospel" (n.14).
Hopefully, these snippets from Dives in Misericordia will inspire a more thorough reading of this document rich in theology, spirituality and practical insight. The sections devoted to Mary, Mother of Mercy, themselves would make such an effort worthwhile.
