“Truth claims its right” (Inner Word).
Without truth there can be no true love, nor can we properly understand the mercy of our heavenly Father. Indeed, His mercy never overlooks or disregards truth and justice, but needs them as a foundation for God’s light to point us in the right direction.
Indeed, our Father’s willingness to forgive man is infinite. In His message to Mother Eugenia Ravasio, He makes this clear in a very moving way. If a person repents just once of his sins before he dies and calls on his divine Father to forgive him, He will forgive him because of this act of love and truth.
However, this act is indispensable for a person to awaken to the truth. Although he will usually have to remain for a time in a place of atonement and purification, he will then be united with God for all eternity.
Therefore, it is imperative that the proclamation of the infinite love of our Heavenly Father be imbued with truth. Every person is called to live according to the truth and, if he has left it, to return to it by the grace of God.
This is especially important in the Church’s proclamation: although she must lovingly lower herself and reach out to sinners and the lost, she can never abandon the call to conversion, because truth demands its right. If this call were set aside, people would be deceived by a false love and lulled into an illusory security.
Jesus did not condemn the adulterous woman who was brought to Him, but exhorted her not to sin again (Jn 8:11).