Mercy is the very name of God
Mercy is the central nucleus of the Gospel message; it is the very name of God, the face with which He revealed Himself in the Old Covenant and fully in Jesus Christ, the incarnation of creative and redemptive Love. This merciful love also shines in the face of the Church and show itself through the Sacraments, in particular that of Reconciliation, and in works of charity, both communitarian and individual.
Excerpt from: BENEDICT XVI.
Regina Cæli, 30/3/2008
There are truths that are less pleasing to hear…
It is pleasant to hear that God has so much tenderness for us, even more tenderness than a mother has for her children, as Isaiah says. How pleasant and congenial it is! […]
Other truths, on the contrary, are hard to accept. God must punish, if I resist. He runs after me, He begs me to repent and I say: “No!” I almost force Him to punish me.
This is not agreeable. But it is a truth of Faith.
Excerpts from: JOHN PAUL I.
General Audience, 13/9/1978
Mercy and justice coincide in God
Justice and mercy, justice and charity […] are two different realities only for the human person. For we distinguish carefully between a just act and an act of love. For us, “just” means “what is due to the other”, while “merciful” is what is given out of kindness. One seems to exclude the other.
Yet for God it is not like this: justice and charity coincide in Him; there is no just action that is not also an act of mercy and pardon, and at the same time, there is no merciful action that is not perfectly just.
Excerpts from: BENEDICT XVI.
Speech, 18/12/2011
The same Jesus who overflowed with mercy also chastises
It is the fashion in some quarters to first put aside the divinity of Jesus Christ, and then to mention only His unlimited clemency, His compassion for all human miseries, and His pressing exhortations to the love of our neighbour and to the brotherhood of men.
True, Jesus has loved us with an immense, infinite love, and He came on earth to suffer and die so that, gathered around Him in justice and love, motivated by the same sentiments of mutual charity, all men might live in peace and happiness.
But for the realization of this temporal and eternal happiness, He has laid down with supreme authority the condition that we must belong to His Flock, that we must accept His doctrine, that we must practice virtue, and that we must accept the teaching and guidance of Peter and his successors.
Further, whilst Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray, He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all, but He instructed them in order to convert them and save them. […]
Whilst His heart overflowed with gentleness for the souls of good-will, He could also arm Himself with holy indignation against the profaners of the House of God (cf. Mt 21:13; Lk 19:46), against the wretched men who scandalized the little ones (cf. Lk 17:2), against the authorities who crush the people with the weight of heavy burdens without putting out a hand to lift them (cf. Mt 23:4).
He was as strong as He was gentle. He reproved, threatened, chastised, knowing, and teaching us that fear is the beginning of wisdom (cf. Prv 1:7; 9:10), and that it is sometimes proper for a man to cut off an offending limb to save his body (cf. Mt 18:8-9).
Excerpts from: ST. PIUS X.
Notre charge apostolique, 25/8/1910
The Word of God is demanding and rattles consciences
This meekness and humility of heart in no way signifies weakness. On the contrary, Jesus is demanding. His Gospel is demanding. Was it not He who warned: “he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me”? And shortly afterwards: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 10:38-39).
This is a kind of radicalism, not only in evangelical language, but in the real demands of following Christ. […]
Jesus wants us to realize that the Gospel is demanding, and that demanding also means rattling consciences, not allowing them to settle into a false “peace” in which they become increasingly insensitive and obtuse as spiritual realities become meaningless and lose all resonance in them. […]
Jesus is demanding. He is not harsh or inexorably severe, but strong and unequivocal when He calls someone to live in the truth.
Excerpts from: ST. JOHN PAUL II.
General Audience, 8/6/1988
Out of mercy, the Church must affirm the truth
May all that the Church says and does manifest the mercy God feels for man, and therefore for us. When the Church has to recall an unrecognized truth or a betrayed good, she always does so impelled by merciful love, so that men and women may have life and have it abundantly (cf. Jn 10:10).
Excerpt from: BENEDICT XVI.
Regina cæli, 30/3/2008
Grace does not make wrong into right
God is justice and creates justice. This is our consolation and our hope. And in Hs justice there is also grace. This we know by turning our gaze to the crucified and risen Christ.
Both these things – justice and grace – must be seen in their correct inner relationship. Grace does not cancel out justice. It does not make wrong into right. It is not a sponge which wipes everything away, so that whatever someone has done on earth ends up being of equal value.
Excerpt from: BENEDICT XVI.
Spe salvi, 30/11/2007
For repentant hearts, the last word is forgiveness
God’s punishment is a way to make sinners who are deaf to other appeals turn back to the right path. However, the last word of the righteous God remains a message of love and of forgiveness; He profoundly desires to embrace anew the wayward children who return to Him with a contrite heart.
Excerpt from: ST. JOHN PAUL II.
General Audience, 13/8/2003
Let no one despise God’s mercy!
Reflect on this, dear brethren: God’s goodness has eliminated any escape from our hardening; man can no longer find excuses. God is despised and He waits; He sees Himself spurned, but He makes a new appeal; He endures the injustice of this disdain and even goes so far as to promise to reward those who return to Him one day.
But let no one make light of this long-suffering, for in the judgement He will impose a justice all the more severe for the greater the patience shown before the judgement. […]
He is called a patient rewarder because, while He bears the sins of men, He pays them their due wages. But those whom He endures longer so that they convert, He condemns more severely if they do not do so.
Excerpts from: ST. GREGORY THE GREAT.
Homilies on the Gospels. Homily XIII, n.5
