Divine Mercy in the Holy Scripture
Mercy, in the biblical sense, encompasses much more than one aspect of God’s love.

Holy Scripture
What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet… (Psalm 8:4-6)
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Mt 5:7). The merciful ones already live the life of God Himself.
In Greek language of the New Testament, the word for mercy is eleos. This word is recognised in the prayer Kyrie eleison, which asks the Lord for mercy. The Greek translation of the Old Testament usually translates the Hebrew word hesed as eleos. It is one of the most beautiful words in the Bible. It is usually translated simply as “love”. Hesed – mercy or love – is used to refer to a covenant. It denotes God’s steadfast love, able to maintain communion no matter what: “my steadfast love shall not depart from you” (Isa. 54:10). However, since God’s covenant with his people is accompanied by a history of dissolution and renewal from the very beginning (Exo. 32-34), it is quite clear that such unconditional love implies forgiveness; it can be nothing less than mercy.
The word eleos can also be translated to another Hebrew word, rahamim. Literally it means “a womb”. It is the plural form of the word rehem – the motherly womb. Mercy or compassion, in this context, is love being lived out: the deep love of a mother for her baby (Isa. 49:15), the tenderness of a father for his son (Ps. 103:13), the strong brotherly love (Gen. 43:30).
Mercy, in the Biblical sense, encompasses much more than one aspect of God’s love. It is the very essence of God: “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exo. 34:6).
God’s mercy is transcendent, creating a personal relationship with each human, seeking to save humanity through the life, conversion, repentance and reconciliation of each of us. It is like a bridge that connects the heavenly, invisible reality with the earthly, material reality which is constantly struggling to survive. God is the eternal, powerful and inexhaustible source, incomprehensible to the human mind, who created an abundant and harmonious universe. “You have set your glory above the heavens” (Ps 8:2). Let’s continue and raise a question:
What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet… (Psalm 8:4-6)
Human beings, created in His image, are called to share in God’s glory and majesty. But it is mercy and gentleness that truly allow us to share in God’s own life.
The words of Jesus: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36), are an echo of the old commandment, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). Jesus gave the face of Divine Mercy to the holiness. Mercy is the purest reflection of God in human life. “In mercy to your neighbour you are alike to God”, proclaimed St. Basil the Great. Mercy is a divine attribute for which “every soul thirsts for, like a parched land” (Ps. 143:6 or Ps. 63:1). All that God created was “very good”, but because of the sin of the first parents and their refusal to acknowledge guilt, man was separated from his Creator, expelled from the Garden of Eden, and made mortal and vulnerable.
Lacking this initial intimacy with God, human descendants sank deeper and deeper into destruction, until the cup of God’s patience was overflowing and spilled out in a global flood, saving only the living beings in Noah’s ark. Order was restored and man was given space to live on earth again. It was a new beginning and an opportunity. Then came the fall of the Tower of Babel and the scattering of the people as they started speaking in different languages. The inability to communicate is a consequence of pride, of wanting to be like God and to rule ourselves. Through Abraham, mankind was gathered into one family. The blessing bestowed on Abraham became a blessing for the whole chosen nation: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). God does not abandon his creation, humanity, but hears the complaint of an oppressed nation. God reveals Himself to Moses in the burning bush: “I am that I am”. God walks with his people and accompanies them on the road of history. He is the one who frees them from slavery. God’s mercy is sovereign, it does not seek to earn love or honour. He is the Love itself, full of wholeness and honour, generous to those who call upon Him. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful – for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13).
“And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The LORD’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Exo. 33, 19) – these verses are a definition of the essence of God. It is repeated multiple times in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms (Deut. 4:31; Ps. 86:15; Ps. 103:8; Ps. 116:5; Ps. 145:8). The climax of divine mercy revelation in the Old Testament is reached in the book of the prophet Hosea. The people broke the covenant and dishonoured God. Therefore, He broke the bonds with His unfaithful people and decided not to show them mercy. “I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them (…) for you are not my people and I am not your God” (Hos. 1:6; 1:9). But then a dramatic turn of events took place: “My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender” (Hos. 11:8). The exaltation of God’s mercy and victory even over His justice is not manifested only in righteous anger and punishment: “for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath” (Hos. 11:9). The prophet Micah says: “He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in showing clemency” (Mic. 7:18). God’s greatness is revealed in His ability to accept human weakness and sinfulness and to submerge all things in Himself, to grow and nourish humanity again for the eternity, where “death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). Life on earth is a constant struggle. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now” (Rom. 8:22).
The mystery of God’s mercy encompasses all the mysteries and events of humanity from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New Testament. God is always the first one to desire and show mercy in His dealings with man. He sends His prophets; allows the lost, the backslidden and those who have turned away from God to go through exile and trials, so that the people may once again cry out and long for God’s closeness.
In the New Testament, God reveals Himself even more, and we hear of a three-person Being, the Holy Trinity. God the Father glorifies the Son sent on a mission of salvation for humanity, and the Son glorifies his Father through the humble doing of His will, the manifestation of God in human flesh, the proclamation of the Good News, the miracles of physical and spiritual healing. The pinnacle of Divine Mercy appears at Golgotha: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). Becoming adopted by the Lord is what the Gospel offers to us, for “whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).
God’s family, bound together not by blood, but by faith in the Great Commandment to “love our neighbour as ourselves”, is the key to the eternity. We recognise our neighbour in “the one who showed him mercy” (Luke 10:37), in whom the image of God is reflected.
Divine Mercy is the plan of salvation and redemption for humanity. The Son of God, by becoming the perfect sacrifice, transforms the instrument of death and humiliation into the tree of life. The blood and water flowing from His pierced side symbolise Baptism, the universal communion of Christians, the life-giving and grace-giving unity of the Church, and the blood symbolises the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive or restrain sins, granted to the Apostles by the Saviour. The Holy Spirit is the witness and participant in all these things. He calls each one by name and urges him to walk the path of faith, gives meaning to every suffering and sacrifice for Christ, and gives gifts and mission. “He showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” (Rev. 22:1-2)
There are more than four hundred passages in the Holy Scripture praising the Divine Mercy, and one hundred and thirty passages in the Psalms exalting God’s mercy.