„Merciful like the Father”. Reflections in the Year of Mercy

Abstract

“Merciful like the Father”, the motto of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, encourages us to make the following reflection: to be merciful like God, we must first understand the very nature of God's mercy. God's mercy can be seen in the face of Christ. Mercy is more than an attribute of God, it constitutes His essence. Mercy is defined in the liturgy as the clearest manifestation of God's power. A sin is where mercy can be most often found and most fully experienced. Nothing robs man of his human dignity more than the sin. However, it is God Himself that takes the initiative to restore this dignity. Despite numerous sins, despite the fact that the sin disinherits us from our humanity, diminishes our humanity, God lifts us up: He saves our humanity. The omnipotent God can bring out from man something he alone is not be able to do on his own will. Only through God's omnipotence can the human good be drawn from underneath the layers of evil and sin. Our merciful behaviour is determined by the nature of God's mercy. We need to imitate the mercy of God. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church are guidelines helping us to shape the attitude of imitating God's mercy.