Mercy that remakes man

The recent catechesis of Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday, September 24, places us at the heart of Christianity: the mercy of God as an inexhaustible source of new life. This is not a secondary devotional idea, but the very core of Revelation.

St. John Paul II forcefully affirmed: "mercy is the greatest attribute of God" (Dives in misericordia, 13). And Benedict XVI recalled that "the Christian faith is not above all an idea, but an encounter with an event, with a Person" (Deus Caritas Est, 1): this encounter is with Christ who, on the Cross, makes his forgiveness the visible face of divine love.

The proposal of Leo XIV

The novelty of Pope Leo XIV's catechesis lies in emphasizing that divine forgiveness is not a simple "forgetting" of sin, but a creative act. Where man destroys, God re-creates. Forgiveness not only absolves: it re-creates. Hence God's mercy is always a source of hope. The believer is not defined by his falls, but by the love that lifts him up.

However, this experience requires a spiritual path: humility and repentance. Pride closes access to grace, while sincere confession opens wide the door to forgiveness. The prodigal Son could only experience the Father's embrace when he acknowledged his misery and said: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you" (Lk 15:21). Mercy does not humiliate: it dignifies. But it demands the courage to recognize that we are in need.

Forgiving oneself

Another decisive aspect opens up here: God's forgiveness also demands that
let us learn to forgive ourselves. Many times the Christian lives as a
if sacramental absolution would be ineffective, burdening us with faults that have already been
redeemed. But faith teaches us that the definitive judgment on our life is not
our faults, but the blood of Christ shed for us. To forgive ourselves is, ultimately, to accept God's gaze on our history.

From this certainty is born the joy of the Gospel. Forgiveness is not only psychological rest, it is ontological peace: it restores us to the state of reconciled children, brought back into communion. As the Catechism teaches, "there is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness" (CCC 2845). For this reason, the experience of mercy does not lead to resignation, but to mission: the forgiven person becomes a witness and minister of forgiveness in a world wounded by harshness and resentment.

Pope Leo XIV's catechesis invites us, in short, to contemplate forgiveness as a gift that demands humility and gives hope, humility: because recognizing one's own guilt is a condition for opening oneself to grace, hope: because every fall can become a place of encounter with the God who "makes all things new" (Rev 21:5). And above all, gratitude: because everything in the Christian life is born of grateful amazement before a God who never tires of remaking us with his mercy.