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Buenos Aires, September 12, 2004

Father Oscar Pezzarini

God's Mercy

One of the greatest attitudes God has towards Man is the fruit of His infinite Love, which is Forgiveness. God is made happy by forgiving, He wants to forgive, He is always “eager to forgive”. The Gospel tells us a lot about God's Mercy and many times comparisons are used in order to tell us up to which point the “Heavenly Father” is willing to forgive us. God is Father and He is Merciful, He expects only a gesture from us, a sign of our repentance, a “return” from our errors, so He will take pleasure and enjoy doing what He most likes to exercise: His Mercy.

One of the greatest attitudes God has towards Man is the fruit of His infinite Love, which is Forgiveness. God is made happy by forgiving, He wants to forgive, He is always “eager to forgive”.

God always wants our Salvation and He knows that therefore His forgiveness is essential, and this is something we people must understand, because although it's hard to believe, Man often has a difficult time believing that God is able to forgive, and even more so, he behaves as if God were not at all able to forgive or didn't want to.

In the Old Testament He is often shown in the image of a “punishing” God, or perhaps we have kept this image although in many passages He is shown as a God who also wants forgiveness for Man, who was ready to do so as long as He got a small gesture from Man.

Later on, in the culminating stage of the Salvation History with Jesus' arrival a definitive image of God was shown to us, a God who although He rules, is judge, also is our Father and as such His greatest wish is to be merciful.

The Gospel tells us a lot about God's Mercy and many times comparisons are used in order to tell us up to which point the “Heavenly Father” is willing to forgive us.

The Heavenly joy caused by someone converting is not just something symbolic, it also is a condition in which Happiness is permanent and where everybody beginning with God Himself enjoys the Person who is “reconciled” with his Creator and Father.

The image of the parable of the “Lost Son”, which actually is the parable of the Merciful Father, shows us a Father who is made happy by the return of his son, who does not reproach him for anything, who holds a party because he has recovered the one who was lost and comes back, without caring about the reproaches of his other son who has always remained besides Him, pointing out that the only important thing is the “recovery” and the reconciliation of the one who had gone away.

How difficult is it for today's Human Being to acknowledge God's mercy and to “return” to the Father, it often seems as if Man is “happy” to have an “avenging” God who “pays me back” according to my merits, and who nevertheless does not realize that this God father holds His arms wide open waiting to be able to embrace us.

By not acknowledgeing God's forgiving capability it even may become “more comfortable” so we don't need to commit to this “Mercy of God” which demands from us the feeling of being in need of forgiveness and also the obligation of being ourselves merciful to others.

God is Father and He is Merciful, He expects only a gesture from us, a sign of our repentance, a “return” from our errors, so He will take pleasure and enjoy doing what He most likes to exercise: His Mercy.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
General Commissioner of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina

Father Oscar Pezzarini makes us think with his reflections in "Diálogos de Buena Fe" the radio program of the Felices los Niños Foundation on Radio Belgrano, AM 950 kHz, Sundays from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Little Cottolengo Don Orione 0800-333-6746 in Argentina or +54 (11) 4268-7722 from abroad.

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