Dives in Misericordia: “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” (5)

Chapter 5 of “Dives in Misericordia” (“Rich in Mercy”) is entitled “An Analogy.” It begins as follows:

“5. At the very beginning of the New Testament, two voices resound in St. Luke’s Gospel in unique harmony concerning the mercy of God, a harmony which forcefully echoes the whole Old Testament tradition. They express the semantic elements linked to the differentiated terminology of the ancient books. Mary, entering the house of Zechariah, magnifies the Lord with all her soul for ‘his mercy,’ which ‘from generation to generation’ is bestowed on those who fear Him. A little later, as she recalls the election of Israel, she proclaims the mercy which He who has chosen her holds ‘in remembrance’ from all time.⁶⁰ Afterwards, in the same house, when John the Baptist is born, his father Zechariah blesses the God of Israel and glorifies Him for performing the mercy promised to our fathers and for remembering His holy covenant.⁶¹”

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. Luke 1:49-54).
61. Cf. Luke 1:72. Here too it is a case of mercy in the meaning of hesed, insofar as in the following sentences, in which Zechariah speaks of the ‘tender mercy of our God,’ there is clearly expressed the second meaning, namely, rahamim (Latin translation: viscera misericordiae), which rather identifies God’s mercy with a mother’s love.

 

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Pope John Paul II: “Dives in Misericordia”