Italy- Psalm 102 is a wonderful hymn to God’s mercy and forgiveness, who “forgives all our sins, who knows how we are formed, who remembers that we are dust and does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (vv. 3, 14, 10).
- God is therefore not “just” according to human criteria, because He is Love, and therefore, in His mercy, He never punishes, but always forgives (2 Sam 24:14; Ps 51:3; 66:20): “For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath” (Hos 11:9). Mercy is an expression of His divine essence. Mercy completely distinguishes Him from human beings and elevates Him above all that is human.
- But not only does God always forgive: He completely forgets our sins. Far from the usual image of a God who at the end of our life will await us with scales to weigh whether good or evil prevailed in us, or with a large notebook in which all our actions will be written! We must take the words of Scripture seriously: “I blot out your transgressions for my own sake, and remember your sins no more!” (Is 25:7; cf. 43:25); our sins are “cast into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19), they will become “white as snow and like wool” (Is 1:18), they will be “dissipated like a mist and like a cloud” (Is 44:22), because God truly forgets all our iniquities! Truly, “as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy.., as far as the east is from the west, so far does God remove our transgressions from us” (vv. 11-12).
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Psalm XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
8 October 2026