It’s always love that ‘makes the first step,’ Pontiff explains
VATICAN CITY (CNA)
Pope Francis launched a new series of catecheses on mercy as revealed in the Bible for his general audiences Jan. 13, telling pilgrims that the love and forgiveness of God can’t be overcome by anything, including our sin.
“In the Book of Exodus God defines Himself as the God of mercy. This is His name, through which He reveals to us His face and His heart,” the Pope said.
The description of God as being “steadfast in love and faithfulness” is beautiful, he said. This description “says everything, because God is great and powerful, but this greatness and power unfold in loving us, so little, so incapable.”
Used in this way, the word love indicates an attitude of affection, grace, and goodness, he said, distinguishing this from the type of superficial love we see in soap operas.
It’s always love that “makes the first step, that doesn’t depend on human merits but gives an immense gratuity,” he said. “Nothing can stop divine solicitude, not even sin, because it knows how to go beyond sin, overcoming evil and forgiving it.”
We can “learn mercy by listening to what God Himself teaches us with His word.” God tells Moses that He is “the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
These words are echoed throughout the Old Testament, he said; the same formula is found in other texts. Although there are variations, “always the emphasis is put on mercy and on the love of God Who never tires of forgiving.”
“The image is that of a God Who is moved and softens for us like a mother when she takes her child in her arms, desiring only to love, protect, and help, and she is ready to give everything, even herself. A love, then, that can be defined in a good way as ‘visceral.'”
God is also referred to as “compassionate,” and it is out of this compassion that the Lord in His greatness “bends down to whoever is weak and poor, always ready to welcome, to understand, and to forgive.”
After the younger son, the prodigal son, took his inheritance and squandered it, his father never abandoned him or closed himself in resentment, but continued to wait for his return.
Once the younger son came back, the father ran to meet him and embraced him. “So great was the love and joy at having found him again, (the father) didn’t even allow him to finish his confession; it’s as though he covered his mouth.”
Then the father called the older son and invited him to the celebration. Even though the older son was bitter, the father “tried to open his heart to love, because no one is excluded from the feast of mercy.”
This same merciful God is described as being “slow to anger,” and is willing to wait patiently, like a wise farmer who waits for his crop, for the seeds of repentance to grow in our hearts.
“God is totally and always reliable. He is a solid and stable presence. This is the certainty of our faith.”
The Pope prayed that during the Jubilee of Mercy, all would entrust themselves entirely to the Lord “and experience the joy of being loved by this God Who is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and great in love and faithfulness.”
After greeting pilgrims from countries around the world, the Pope offered prayers for the victims and families of a Jan. 12 suicide bombing near the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
At least 10 people were killed and several injured when a suicide bomber, identified as a Syrian, blew himself up in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district, which is near the Blue Mosque. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pope Francis invited the faithful to pray for the victims, and asked that the merciful God would “give eternal peace to the deceased, comfort to the families, firm solidarity to society as a whole,” and “convert the hearts of the violent.”
