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Cardinal Burke-Reflections on Divine Mercy & Justice (Part III)

Reflections on Divine Mercy & Justice (Part III) - Cardinal Burke

Divine Mercy and Justice according to Pope Saint John Paul II
We must remember that Pope Saint John Paul II has been hailed as the great pope of mercy. Thus the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in the homily for the Funeral Mass of the holy Pontiff, declared: “He has interpreted for us the Paschal Mystery as a mystery of divine mercy.”[1]
In his early life, he suffered greatly under the Nazi and Communist regimes, experiencing intensely the evils which sin can bring upon this world. Later, as the Roman Pontiff, he nearly died from a gunshot wound delivered by a would-be assassin. Nevertheless, Pope John Paul II continuously proclaimed mercy to the world, not least when he met with his assassin, Ali Agca, in his prison cell on December 27, 1983.
At the turn of the Third Christian Millennium, he recognized the heroic virtues of the modern apostle of mercy, Saint Faustina Kowalska. He beatified her on April 18, 1993, and canonized her a saint on April 30, 2000. He also instituted the Feast of Divine Mercy on the Second Sunday of Easter as a sign that Divine Mercy is a perennial and central part of Catholic Tradition. Even now from heaven, Saint John Paul II surely calls the Church to live the virtue of mercy.
His Encyclical letter, Dives in Misericordia (1980), helps us to grasp his essential message. I will now summarize the Church’s teaching as set forth in the Encyclical Letter. As God in the flesh, Christ reveals the Father’s love and mercy toward humankind. Jesus Christ, “in a certain sense, is mercy”[2]. In His preaching, Christ “demanded from people that they also should be guided in their lives by love and mercy. This requirement ... constitutes the heart of the Gospel ethos.”[3] This is summarized in Christ’s promise in the Beatitudes, the summary of His entire teaching: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”[4]
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