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MERCY-ORTHODOX Apr-4-2008 (600 words) xxxi
Orthodox bishop says nothing can destroy God's desire to forgive
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) -- God loves every human being, and there is nothing anyone can do that would destroy God's merciful desire to forgive, said Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria.
Speaking April 4 at the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy in Rome, Bishop Hilarion explored the teaching on divine mercy contained in the writings of the seventh-century hermit, St. Isaac the Syrian.
The saint, he said, taught that "divine loves lies at the foundation of the universe, it governs the world, and it will lead the world to that glorious outcome when the latter will be entirely 'consumed' by the godhead."
Bishop Hilarion said St. Isaac was opposed to the teaching, spread during his lifetime, that held that the majority of people would be punished in hell and only a few would make it to heaven.
The saint was "convinced that, quite the contrary, the majority of people will find themselves in the kingdom of heaven and that only a few sinners will go to Gehenna, and even then only for the period of time which is necessary for their repentance and remission of sins," the bishop said.
"Every created being is precious in God's eyes," Bishop Hilarion said. "If we turn away from God, he does not turn away from us."
St. Isaac emphasized that God loves all people -- righteous and sinners -- equally. And the fact that a person may change -- may go from being cleansed in baptism to being a sinner -- will not change God, who is always merciful and loving, the bishop said.
"Even when God chastises one, he does this out of love and for the sake of one's salvation, rather than for the sake of retribution," the Orthodox bishop told the conference.
He said St. Isaac was not convinced to change his teaching by those who believed people would sin more frequently and more easily if church teaching emphasized God's readiness to forgive more than the possibility of eternal punishment.
"The notion of God as a careful father gives birth in a person to a filial love for and adherence to him, whereas the notion of God as a chastiser can only cause a slavish fear and dread before him," the bishop said.
In St. Isaac's view, he said, a place in heaven is given to a person not on the basis of his or her worthiness, "but rather on the basis of God's mercy and love toward humankind."
Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, also spoke April 4 at the congress, which was designed to explore and promote the divine mercy devotions of St. Faustina Kowalska.
While God reaches out with mercy to all people in many ways, it is in the liturgy and the sacraments that Catholics can experience it most directly, the cardinal said.
"Jesus Christ, the manifestation of God's saving and merciful love for all humanity," established the church and gave it the gift of the sacraments so that divine mercy would be made present and available throughout history, Cardinal Arinze said.
"It is in the liturgy that God feeds us with his word, his forgiveness, his mercy and his life," he said.
Cardinal Arinze said the fact that the death and resurrection of Jesus is the clearest, most concrete sign of God's loving mercy is what made it so appropriate for Pope John Paul II to declare the Sunday after Easter Divine Mercy Sunday.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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