Dives in Misericordia - Mercy As Revealed in The Crucifixion and Resurrection

Mercy As Revealed in The Crucifixion and Resurrection

John Paul then turns to the central message of Christianity: Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and examines them for their implications on God's mercy. In his Passion, Christ appeals for mercy, but he himself is not spared. Pope John Paul calls this a "superabundance" of God's justice as reparation for the sins of man, yet springing from the supreme love of the Father for man. Thus, he writes, in Jesus' crucifixion, justice is simultaneously fulfilled and revealed by a deeper love: "The divine dimension of redemption is put into effect not only by bringing justice to bear upon sin, but also by restoring to love that creative power in man thanks also which he once more has access to the fullness of life and holiness that come from God. In this way, redemption involves the revelation of mercy in its fullness."

Read more about this topic:  Dives In Misericordia

Famous quotes containing the words mercy, revealed, crucifixion and/or resurrection:

    The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature—were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

    What has been hidden by snow is revealed by a thaw.
    Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.

    The Crucifixion and other historical precedents notwithstanding, many of us still believe that outstanding goodness is a kind of armor, that virtue, seen plain and bare, gives pause to criminality. But perhaps it is the other way around.
    Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)

    Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.
    —Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)