Question 7.119

7.119 Who is this God of forgiveness?

The Book of Jonah declares that this God is “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy, [who repents] of evil” (Jon 4:2).

As for Jeremiah, he reveals to us a God trembling with tenderness for Ephraim: “Is Ephraim my dear Son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord” (Jer 31:20).

The prophet Isaiah puts it this way: God has carved us on the palms of his hands. The Father surpasses and overwhelms the tenderness of all the mothers in the world: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Is 49:15-16).

Finally, Jesus reveals a God whose love is unfathomable. When his prodigal children return home, he gives them a lengthy embrace and restores to them their dignity as children of heaven.

God is good and beautiful, and his creatures are all in his image; Genesis, with its account of the beginning of the world, is magnificently imbued with God’s beauty. This beauty shines for man. God does nothing for himself; all creation is designed for his offspring.

God’s beauty, which is reflected in creation but can be destroyed by man, can always be reborn thanks to forgiveness. If man rejects forgiveness, he detaches himself from God and falls into a subhuman life dominated by ugliness, lying, and evil. If he accepts forgiveness, good is reborn.