Chapter 1 17 Father (see Lk 15:11–32) or the Good Shepherd searching for a lost sheep (see Lk 15:3–7). Therefore, one should not juxtapose God’s justice with His Mercy as both these realities reveal God’s fatherly heart. But the New Testament message is clear: “mercy triumphs over judgement” (Jas 2:13). This entails a genuine demonstration of mercy, modelled on that of God Himself. It does not imply a tolerance of evil or an affirmation of moral deviation, rather the act of forgiving a person’s sin when he or she genuinely acknowledges guilt, as illustrated in the parable of the prodigal son (see Lk 15:18–20). Erroneous understandings of mercy and a caricature of human justice attributed to God distort His image and prevent a man from discovering and loving the only true God Who revealed Himself in Christ. 1.2 The Paschal Theology The solution offered by the Paschal theology seems to be most proper and faithful to the authentic Apostolic Tradition of the New Testament and teachings of the Church Fathers. One of the most prominent representatives of this theological method is the previously mentioned French Redemptorist François-Xavier Durrwell and, in the Polish context, a theologian from Lublin, Fr. Wacław Hryniewicz, OMI. In Paschal theology, the key categories explaining the mystery of Triune God revealing Himself in the Paschal mystery of Christ are person, communion, relation, and gift. Redemption and salvation are made in the Person of Christ by His Filial relationship with the Father, when, through death and Resurrection, He becomes the Son of God as the Son of Man, through His obedience to the Father, as befits the Son of God, Whom Christ has always been as the eternal Logos. Christ’s human nature fully partakes in the mystery of the eternal begetting of the Son by the Father in the Holy Spirit through His incarnation. Through faith, every person enters into a personal relationship with Christ, the Son of God, and experiences salvation and communion with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the relationship uniting the Father and the Son. He is the Gift of the Father and the Son, realizing man’s salvation “here and now.” In Him, the Father is eternally giving life to the Son. In Him, the faithful, born again through the Spirit (cf. Jn 3:1–8), become children of God through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, Who is constantly present and accessible in the mystery of His Resurrection (cf. Jn 20:1–31). The Sacraments of the
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