GENERAL AUDIENCE: JUDGEMENT AND MERCY

VATICAN CITY, JUL 7, 1999 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father spoke on the subject of "Judgement and Mercy." He said that, even though they may appear to be "two irreconcilable realities," nonetheless Holy Scripture unites them and presents them in such a way that one cannot exist without the other.

"The sense of divine justice is discerned progressively throughout the Old Testament, starting from situations in which those who have acted well feel unjustly threatened. ... Scripture understands intervention in support of the oppressed as being, above all, justice, that is, God's faithfulness to the promises He made to Israel."

John Paul II recalled that, from the viewpoint of salvation, the figure of the Messiah assumes "the functions of rule and judgement, for the prosperity and growth of the community and of its individual members."

In the New Testament "divine justice is linked with Christ's saving work. ... Only those who refuse salvation, offered by God in His limitless mercy, will be condemned because they will have condemned themselves."

The Pope explained that judgement and mercy are understood as two "dimensions of the same mystery of love. ... (Love) spurs us to have faith in the day of judgement, eliminating all fear. In imitation of this divine justice, human justice too must be exercised according to a law of liberty in which mercy must prevail."

He concluded: "In revealing to us the fullness of the Father's mercy, Jesus also taught us that this Father, so just and merciful, may be reached only through the experience of mercy which must mark our relationship with our brothers and sisters.

AG;JUDGEMENT; MERCY;...;...;VIS;19990707;Word: 280;