Italy
The Works of Mercy through the eyes of a biblist
A two-week gathering is currently taking place in Lucca, aimed at building useful tools for the dissemination of the Works of Mercy.
Thanks to the contribution of biblist Carlo Miglietta, we continue our analysis of these deeds.
The fifth spiritual Work of Mercy is “to forgive offenses”.
The biblist points out that whoever performs this work resembles:
- God: “The Lord, a God merciful and gracious” (Ex 34:6; Ps 100:5; 136; Eph 2:4); “You are a God ready to forgive” (Neh 9:17); “He forgives all your iniquity” (Ps 103:3); “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity…, because he delights in mercy?” (Mic 7:18); “I blot out your transgressions…, and I will not remember your sins!” (Is 25:7; cf. Jer 31:34); “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12); “God… will tread our iniquities underfoot, and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19); “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Is 1:18); “I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud” (Is 44:22).
- Jesus: “Woman, has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again!” (Jn 8:10-11); “Jesus… said to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’” (Mk 2:5-12); “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6-8); “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:13); “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47); “That I should lose nothing of all that the Father has given me” (Jn 6:39); “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk 19:10); regarding His crucifiers, Jesus says: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).
- Joseph, son of Jacob, who was sold by his brothers and yet forgave them (Gen 45:5).
The biblist also reminds us that whoever forgives offenses listens to the Word of God.
Here are a few excerpts:
- “Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray. Does anyone harbor anger against another, and expect healing from the Lord?” (Sir 28:2-5; cf. Mt 18:23-35).
- “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mk 11:25; cf. Mt 6:14; Lk 6:37).
- “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Lk 11:4).
- “‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven’” (Mt 18:22; cf. Lk 17:4).
- “Forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:31-5:2).
The biblist leaves us at the conclusion of this work with a challenging question: do we know how to be “fishers of men” (Mk 1:17), recognizing those who know how to forgive offenses and proclaiming to them the beatitude of Mercy: “Blessed are the merciful” (Mt 5:7)?
Mercy
The primary Hebrew word used to designate mercy is rehamin, which properly refers to the viscera, the seat of emotions, our “heart”: it is a plural form of réhèm, the maternal womb.
It is the spontaneous affection that stems from the bond of fatherhood, motherhood, or brotherhood: “Joseph hurried out, for his heart yearned for his brother, and he was on the verge of tears” (Gen 43:30).
In the Apostolic Letter “Misericordia et misera”, at the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis writes: “We are called to promote a culture of mercy based on the rediscovery of encounter with others, a culture in which no one looks at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers and sisters. The works of mercy are ‘handcrafted’, in the sense that none of them is alike. Our hands can craft them in a thousand ways, and even though the God who inspires them is one, and the ‘matter’ of which they are made is one—mercy itself—each takes on a different form.”
Being Witnesses of Mercy – ILLUMINATE
2 February 2026