[14] What then are we to say? Is there injustice on the part of God? Of course not! [15] For he says to Moses: "I will show mercy to whom I will, I will take pity on whom I will." [16] So it depends not upon a person's will or exertion, but upon God, who shows mercy. [17] For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "This is why I have raised you up, to show my power through you that my name may be proclaimed throughout the earth." [18] Consequently, he has mercy upon whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.
(CCC 270) God is the Father Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on one another: God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs; by the filial adoption that he gives us ("I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty") (2 Cor 6:18; cf. Mt 6:32): finally by his infinite mercy, for he displays his power at its height by freely forgiving sins. (CCC 271) God's almighty power is in no way arbitrary: "In God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical. Nothing therefore can be in God's power which could not be in his just will or his wise intellect" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I, 25, 5, ad I).
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