Pope: God wants to save us all; His mercy "fulfills justice"

Forgiving and helping the offender to recognize and reject evil is also "a way to resolve conflicts within families, in relationships between spouses or between parents and children, where the offended love the offender and want to save the relationship that binds them to each other. Do not cut off that relationship." "It is a great responsibility to be confessors, so great, because the son, the daughter who comes to you only wants to have a father. And you, the priest, you're there in the confessional, you stand there in the place of the Father who does justice with His mercy".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - God wants to save us all and it is His mercy which "completes justice", a justice that asks the offender to acknowledge the harm done and to stop doing it, so that "there is no longer evil, and he who was unjust becomes just, because forgiven and helped to find the path of good".

The relationship between mercy and justice was the focus of the Pope's catechesis for the general audience, still devoted to the theme of the Jubilee of Mercy and animated, like last week, by an exhibition of artists from the American Circus, which Francis welcomed with a smile. He recalled what he had said seven days ago: "you do a thing of beauty and beauty always brings us closer to God." But, he added, "behind this show of beauty there are hours, hours and hours of training" and "the apostle Paul tells us that to get to the end you must train, to win you must train, and this is an example for all of us, because the seduction of an easy life, of obtaining results without effort is a temptation, and today you remind us that life without striving is a life of mediocrity, thank you so much of your example " .

The Pope toured among the 15 thousand people present in St Peter's Square on his jeep, taking on board two children, a boy and a girl.  He then asked the crowd "What has mercy got to do with justice? It might seem - he continued - they are two realities that contradict each other; in reality it is not so, because it is the mercy of God that fulfills true justice. But what kind of justice is this? If we think of the administration of official justice, we think of those who consider themselves the victim of an injustice addressing the judge in court and asking for justice to be done. It is a retributive justice, inflicting a penalty on the guilty, on the principle that each must be given what is due to him. As stated in the Book of Proverbs: "He who practices righteousness is destined for life, but whoever pursues evil is destined for death." Jesus also speaks of it in the parable of the widow who repeatedly went to the judge and asked him: 'Give me justice against my adversary' ".

"This road, however, does not lead to true justice yet because it really does not overcome evil, but simply judging. Instead, it is only responding with good and that evil can be truly defeated. Here then is another way of doing justice that the Bible presents to us as the path to take. It is a process which avoids the use of the court and provides for the victim to apply directly to the guilty to invite him to conversion, helping him to understand that he is doing evil, by appealing to his conscience. In this way, finally he repents and acknowledging his wrong, he may be open to the forgiveness that the injured party is offering. And this is nice, persuasion, so the heart opens to forgiveness that is offered. This is the way to resolve differences in families, in relationships between spouses or between parents and children, where the injured loves the guilty and wants to save the relationship that binds them to the other. Do not cut off that relationship. Of course, this is a difficult journey. It requires that those who have suffered wrong be ready to forgive and desire the salvation and the good of those who have offended. But this is how justice can prevail, because, if the offender recognizes the harm done and stops doing it, that's how evil is defeated, and he who was unjust becomes just, because forgiven and helped to find the path of good . This is how forgiveness and mercy work.
This is how God acts towards us sinners. The Lord constantly offers us His forgiveness and helps us to welcome Him and to become aware of our evil that we should deliver. Because God does not want our condemnation, but our salvation. God does not want the condemnation of the nobodies, someone will tell me that the sentence of Pilate might be just, or even of Judah but instead no! The God of Mercy wants to save us all, the problem is who really wants to let God into their heart. "

"All the words of the prophets are a passionate appeal and full of love that seeks our conversion. This is what the Lord says through the prophet Ezekiel: "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked [...] and not rather that he should turn from his ways and live?". This pleases God. This is God's heart, the heart of a Father who loves and wants his children to live in goodness and justice, and therefore live in fullness and to be happy. A fatherly heart that goes beyond our little concept of justice to open ourselves to the boundless horizons of His mercy. The heart of a father who does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our sins, as the Psalm says. And precisely it is a father's heart that we want to meet when we go to confession. Perhaps to hear something to make us better understand evil, but we all go to the confessional to find a father; a father to help us change our lives; a father who gives us the strength to go on; a father who forgives us in the name of God. And this is why it is such a great responsibility to be confessors, so great, because that son, the daughter who comes to you only wants to have a father. And you, priest, you're in the confessional, you stand there in the place of the Father who does justice with mercy. "

• Vatican; Pope Francis
• General Audience
• Jubilee of Mercy