Dives in Misericordia: “The Mercy of God in the Mission of the Church” (15, continued)

Chapter 8 of “Dives in Misericordia” (“Rich in Mercy”) is entitled “The Prayer of the Church in Our Times.” It continues as follows:

“15. . . . And, if any of our contemporaries do not share the faith and hope which lead me, as a servant of Christ and steward of the mysteries of God,¹³⁸ to implore God's mercy for humanity in this hour of history, let them at least try to understand the reason for my concern. It is dictated by love for man, for all that is human and which, according to the intuitions of many of our contemporaries, is threatened by an immense danger. The mystery of Christ, which reveals to us the great vocation of man and which led me to emphasize in the encyclical Redemptor hominis his incomparable dignity, also obliges me to proclaim mercy as God’s merciful love, revealed in that same mystery of Christ. It likewise obliges me to have recourse to that mercy and to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world, as we approach the end of the second millennium.”

138. Cf. 1 Corinthians 4:1.

 

To access the complete document, please visit:

Pope John Paul II: “Dives in Misericordia”

Background information:

Pope John Paul II: Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979)