Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

190 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel sisters; a merciful love that makes us united with others, recognizing Christ especially in the most poor and the marginalized, safeguarding their dignity and promoting their right to life and to their integrity, their right to authentic religious freedom, to an education that allows them to live an authentic human existence, and to the realization o f their eco­ nomic and social rights; their right to a job that permits them to reach a better level of life; their right to their own realization, to the common good and to the full participation in the life of their own community; their right to live in a world where science, technology and the power­ ful media of communication are at the service of the human person (Cf. XXXII World Journey o f Peace, 1999). Today, the dramatic inequalities that we experience, especially between North and South America, must be a call to our consciences to do our part in the construction o f a “Bridge o f Mercy” that will assure to all a level o f life authentically human; a bridge that will allow the poorest “to assume the responsibility for their own existence, emanci­ pating them from a regimen o f humiliating assistance” (XXXII World Journey o f Peace, 1999, no. 8). “Authentic mercy is the deepest fount o f justice,” the Holy Father has affirmed; it is the most perfect incarnation o f the “equality” between men; it makes men find each other (cf. Dives in Misericordia, no. 14). The world will be more and more “human” only if in all our recipro­ cal relations we can testify that love is stronger than sin. God’s forgive­ ness is rich in Mercy and He always forgives whoever asks it of Him (Cf. Ezek. 18:23, 2 Cor. 1:3). “God’s forgiveness makes our hearts an endless fount o f forgiveness in the relations with one another, helping us to live under a sign of true fraternity” (John Paul II, World Journey o f Peace, XXX, 1997, no. 1). It is the will o f God, Whom Jesus has taught us to call “Abba,” Father, that each one o f us allows ourselves to be encountered by mer­ ciful love in such a way that, trusting in Him, we are conscious that the man and woman of today has need o f our prayers, of our proclamation of Mercy and of our works of Mercy. It is God’s will that in our dioceses and parishes o f the American