JUBILEE: “MERCY AND THE MYSTERY OF SALVATION”

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In this Jubilee of Mercy we are called to identify with the blind man of Jericho, asking in faith healing from blindness originated from our sin, to be told by the living and eternal source of the Mercy of God: "Receive your sight! Your faith has saved you ". And we will praise God, "Because his mercy is everlasting"

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Mercy runs through the whole mystery of salvation, and it has also sung as a hymn by the Psalmist in a famous psalm of praise and glory, Psalm 135, also said הַלֵּל (Grande Hallel) that every high praise of thanksgiving to God repeats 25 times: for his steadfast love endures forever (his mercy is everlasting).

The Mercy of God is the manifestation of his eternal love the creatures and to the same created. Mercy is the manifestation of force and open to God's goodness; a demonstration that through the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God becomes physical and corporeal, therefore visible. For as St. Paul writes in the prologue of his letter to the inhabitants of the city of Ephesus, generated in the Son not made of the same substance as the Father's mercy is recapitulates, according to this happy and profound definition contained in the Apostle 'expression: "Design unite all things, those in heaven and things on earth ". A recapitulation which is in itself and of itself an act of mercy of God the Father who gives his only Son who became sacrificial lamb without stain that the blood of his own sacrifice wash the sin of the world.

The Dominican theologian Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange He stresses that "Thanks to Mercy the Creator raises the creature from nothing. He also does something more: It brings forth good from evil ". This is the reason why in the praise of the Paschal candle that is sung at Easter, we express our praise to God singing: "O happy fault, He did to deserve such a great Redeemer ". And the work Christological redemptive work of Christ is the heart of the eternal, life and bustle of his Mercy.

Mercy is therefore is a real attribute of God's nature that manifests itself in all its external action. God becomes merciful after man, breaking the harmony of creation, It introduces the world's death through the mystery of original sin; merciful God has always, not only before the fall of man, but before the creation of man, because even in this lies the mystery: he chose us and loved even before the creation of the world, He destined us to be his sons [cf. Ef 1, 1, 4-5].

The Mercy of God consists, so, not only in lifting the man from the misery of sin, but also in admitting participation in the nature of God through grace. That is why the act of man's creation and the put at the feet of the same harmony created, the giving to it the friendship, is a manifestation of mercy by God the Father who, through the son announces to call "friends" [GV 15,15] after having redeemed us from the condition of "servants" [Gal 3, 13].

In his encyclical Dives in misericordia, dedicated to the mystery of God's mercy [cf. WHO] In the 1980 the Holy Father John Paul II leads us to think that in Christ and through Christ, God the Father becomes especially visible in His mercy; and all emphasized that attribute of the divinity which the Old Testament called "Mercy", or as the Psalmist repeats "Because His mercy is everlasting".

Christ confers on the whole tradition Old Testament of the Divine Mercy a definitive meaning. Not just talk about it and explain it by the use of comparisons and parables, but above all he himself embodies and personifies. He himself is, in a sense, Mercy. For those who see in him - and he is - God becomes particularly "visible" as the Father "rich in mercy" [Ef 2, 4], [CF. Dives in Misericordia, 2].

The words of the Apostle John: «Who sees me, sees the Father " [cf. GV 14,9], refers to Christ who earlier had proclaimed himself away, Truth and the Life [cf. GV 14,6], It implies his divine heart and visible of Mercy of the Father. Christ gives us so Mercy as food and source of living water: "I am the bread of life; He who comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst ". All this also with reference to the sacraments of grace, who are the 'greatest expression of God's mercy, everyone. Although in this Jubilee of Mercy there is one in particular which approach, the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, the confession.

Through his gifts of grace, God always opens the heart of his eternal mercy to us, as long as we accept, We accept and, if necessary, or let go to meet his Mercy. To be greeted in the heart of his mercy in fact just one, sincere and profound: "Lord have mercy on me". Like the blind man of Jericho that he heard that Jesus was passing by and he cried out, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!». The people in front scolded him him to be silent; but he shouted even louder: "Son of David, have mercy on me!». Jesus stopped and ordered him to be fetched. As he, she asked him: "What do you want me to do for you?». He replied,: "Man, I want to see again ". And Jesus said to him: "Receive your sight! Your faith has saved you ". Immediately his sight returned and he followed him, glorifying God [cf. LC 18,35-43].

In this Jubilee of Mercy we are called to identify ourselves with the blind man of Jericho, asking in faith healing from blindness originated from our sin, to be told by the eternal and living source of Mercy who is God: "Receive your sight, your faith has saved you ". And we will praise God prostrate on their knees, "Because His mercy is everlasting", because our faith has saved us. And we begin to follow him and to glorify Him, free from that sin makes us blind and closed to the actions of the grace of the Father Creator, Son of the Redeemer, Holy Spirit Comforter.

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