Dives in Misericordia: “The Mercy of God in the Mission of the Church” (14, continued)

Chapter 7 of “Dives in Misericordia” (“Rich in Mercy”) is entitled “The Mercy of God in the Mission of the Church.” It continues as follows:

“14. . . . 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 which cannot be lost and the affirmation of which, or its rediscovery, is a source of the greatest joy.¹³²”

132. Cf. Luke 15:32.

 

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Pope John Paul II: “Dives in Misericordia”