What is mercy?

6 min

Awaiting theological review

What you will understand today

What Christians mean by God's mercy, how we receive it, and why we are asked to forgive.

In simple words

Mercy is love that bends down to someone in need — love meeting misery. The Bible's God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and full of kindness, and Jesus shows his face: he eats with sinners, heals, forgives, and from the Cross prays for those who crucify him.

The Catechism says the Gospel is the revelation of God's mercy to sinners. But mercy has to be received: to receive it, we must admit our faults. That is why confession is called a sacrament of mercy.

Those who receive mercy are asked to give it. Jesus told Peter to forgive not seven times but seventy times seven, and he taught: Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Mercy also means caring for the hungry, the sick and the prisoner.

Key Bible passage

Jesus' summary of the Christian life: be like the Father.

³⁶Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:36 · Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

The circle of mercy

Received
God forgives us
Celebrated
In confession
Shared
We forgive others
Lived
The works of mercy

Go deeper

In Hebrew, one word for mercy is related to the word for womb: a love that is deep, visceral, like a mother's. The Gospels use a similar word when Jesus is moved with compassion.

Mercy is not the opposite of justice. God's mercy takes evil seriously — so seriously that the Son bears it on the Cross — and then offers a new beginning. Justice without mercy crushes; mercy without truth is not mercy.

The Church lists works of mercy for the body and for the soul: feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and the prisoner, but also counselling, teaching, consoling, forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently.

Questions people ask

Can God forgive any sin?

Yes. There is no sin God cannot forgive to someone who repents. What blocks forgiveness is refusing it — closing ourselves to God's mercy.

Do I have to forgive someone who has not apologised?

Jesus forgave from the Cross before anyone asked. Forgiving is a free gift that frees us too; reconciliation, which needs both sides, may take longer or may not be possible.

Does forgiving mean I must go back to someone who hurts me?

No. Forgiving does not oblige anyone to stay in danger or in an abusive relationship. Protecting yourself and others is not a lack of mercy.

Did you know?

Historical context

Pope Francis proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy from December 2015 to November 2016, opening it with the bull Misericordiae Vultus — the face of mercy.

Francis, Misericordiae Vultus (2015)(awaiting verification)

A common misconception

Forgiving means pretending nothing happened.

In fact

Forgiveness does not deny the wrong or require us to trust again at once. It gives up revenge and hands the debt to God; justice can still be sought, and safety protected.

A question to take with you

Whose forgiveness have you received? Whom are you still finding it hard to forgive?

One small thing for today

Pray for one person who hurt you, by name, even if you only manage one sentence.