"God is merciful love": this, said yesterday morning Benedict XVI on introducing the Angelus prayer from Castel Gandolfo, is the gist of the 15th chapter of Luke’s Gospel, "one of the loftiest and most moving pages of all the Scriptures", one that includes the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the merciful Father, usually known as the "prodigal son". "In this evangelical page commented the Holy Father , it is as if we could hear the voice of Jesus, revealing to us the face of His Father and our Father. After all, this is why He came into the world: to tell us about the Father; to make Him known to us, the lost sons, and resurrect in our hearts the joy of belonging to Him, the hope to be forgiven and given back to our full dignity, the desire to inhabit forever His house, which is also our house". Through the three parables, Jesus explained that "God does not want even one of His children to be lost, and His souls overflows with joy when a sinner is converted". The "true religion" consists then "in being in tune with this ‘merciful’ Heart, which asks us to love everyone, including the distant ones and our enemies, like the heavenly Father who respects everyone’s freedom and attracts everyone to Himself with the invincible strength of His faithfulness". (continued)
