Love is the supreme law of Christianity Pope Pius XII expounded on in his Encyclical Haurietis Aquas. For me that paired well with the concept of epikeia and law I had learned about from a short article in the Carmelite Digest (no longer in publication) in 2007 and both became a point of meditation for me. The article in turn had piqued my interest because the same topic was brought up in a conversation one of my Friar friends and I had had about a month earlier on Canon Law. As our conversation was drawing to a close he asked if I knew what was stated in the last canon. At the time I did not know and had to look it up when I returned home: for the record the last line of the last canon (can. 1752) states “and the salvation of souls, which must always be the supreme law in the Church, is to be kept before one’s eyes." What I essentially discovered through all of these was what Pope Francis more recently said in Misericordiae Vultus, “Mercy is not opposed to justice but rather expresses God’s way of reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to look at himself, convert, and believe.”
So long before Pope Francis was elected and began an accelerated focus on mercy, even to proclaiming the upcoming special Year of Mercy, I have been pondering on this most beautiful aspect of our God and have become more and more astounded by and grateful for this merciful love.
Pope Francis has helped us to see the love, the epikeia, that is encompassed within the law. Our Lord reaches out to us sinners and Jesus becomes the visible and tangible expression of epikeia—mercy triumphing justice. Pope Francis tells us, “Everything in [Jesus] speaks of mercy. Nothing in him is devoid of compassion.”
Laws are good and necessary and we don’t simply overlook them and apply epikeia for our own convenience. We rather see that “God himself does not deny justice,” as the Holy Father says, “but envelopes it and surpasses it with an even greater event in which we experience love as the foundation of true justice.”
This all leads me to another aspect of mercy the Pope is known for encouraging us to avail ourselves of – that is to experience God’s epikeia foremost through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As Catholics we have this supreme gift of being able to so intimately experience God’s love taking primacy over justice yet we don’t take advantage of this Sacrament nearly often enough. One result early on for me after coming across the Carmelite Digest article and thinking about epikeia from a pastoral point of view (I leave the sparring over whether epikeia is a virtue or part of justice to folks such as Saint Thomas Aquinas and Suarez) was being more attentive in confession to the words of absolution the priest says and to let what I have just received back soak in. I would like to strongly encourage any of you who seldom or no longer go to Confession to again make this holy and worthy practice a regular part of living out your faith. If you seek peace and joy in your life there are not many better ways to find these than through this holy Sacrament.
Mercy is the faithfulness of God to his own being as love. Because God is love. And mercy is the love revealed to us in concrete deeds and words. So mercy becomes not only the central attribute of God, but also the key of Christian existence. Be merciful as God is merciful. We have to imitate God’s mercy. - Cardinal Walter Kasper
See link below for a review of Cardinal Kasper’s book Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life. I have not read this yet, but this is the book Pope Francis recommended during his first Angelus address saying it had done him so much good.