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The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy. In fact, it tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.
The word and the concept of “mercy” seem to cause uneasiness in man, who, thanks to the enormous development of science and technology, never before known in history, has become the master of the earth and has subdued and dominated it (Cf. Gen 1:28)
This dominion over the earth, sometimes understood in a one-sided and superficial way, seems to have no room for mercy. However, in this regard, we can profitably refer to the picture of man’s situation in the world today as described at the beginning of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (#9 – 1966) Gaudium et Spes.
Here we read the following sentences: “There appears the dichotomy of a world that is at once powerful and weak, capable of doing what is noble and what is base, disposed to freedom and slavery, progress and decline, brotherhood and hatred.
“Man is growing conscious that the forces he has unleashed are in his own hands and that it is up to him to control them or be enslaved by them.”
The situation of the world today not only displays transformations that give grounds for hope in a better future for man on earth, but also reveals a multitude of threats, far surpassing those known up till now.
Without ceasing to point out these threats on various occasions (as in addresses at UNO, to UNESCO, to FAO and elsewhere), the Church must at the same time examine them in the light of the truth received from God.
The truth, revealed in Christ, about God the “Father of mercies,” enables us to “see” Him as particularly close to man especially when man is suffering, when he is under threat at the very heart of his existence and dignity.
And this is why, in the situation of the Church and the world today, many individuals and groups guided by a lively sense of faith are turning, I would say almost spontaneously, to the mercy of God.
They are certainly being moved to do this by Christ Himself, who through His Spirit works within human hearts. …
Humanity and the modern world need mercy so much—even though they often do not realize it.
Excerpted from Dives in Misericordia, an encyclical on mercy, section 2, November 30, 1980
