Vicar of Christ. Just listen to what the Holy Father said about all this at St. Faustina’s tomb in Lagiewniki , Poland, in 1997: “There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy—that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights of the holiness of God. “In this place we become particularly aware of this. From here, in fact, went out the Message of Divine Mercy that Christ Himself chose to pass on to our generation through Blessed Faustina. “And it is a message that is clear and understandable for everyone. Anyone can come here, look at this image of the merciful Jesus, His Heart radiating grace, and hear in the depths of his own soul what Blessed Faustina heard: “Fear nothing. I am with you always” (Diary, 586). “And if this person responds with a sincere heart: “Jesus, I trust in you,” he will find comfort in all his anxieties and fears…. “I give thanks to divine Providence that I have been enabled to contribute personally to the fulfillment of Christ’s will, through the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy. Here, near the relics of Blessed Faustina Kowalska, I give thanks also for the gift of her beatification. I pray unceasingly that God will have “mercy on us and on the whole world” [from the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, Diary, 476]. Again, listen to the words the Holy Father spoke in his homily on Mercy Sunday, 2001: “We are celebrating the Second Sunday of Easter, which, since last year, the year of the Great Jubilee is also called “Divine Mercy Sunday.” It is a great joy for me to be able to join all of you, dear pilgrims and faithful who have come here from various nations to commemorate, after one year, the canonization of Sr. Faustina Kowalska, witness and messenger of the Lord’s merciful love. The elevation to the honours of the altar of this humble religious is not only a gift for Poland, but for all humanity. Indeed the message she brought is the appropriate and incisive answer that God wanted to offer to the questions and expectations of human beings in our time, marked by terrible tragedies. Jesus said to Sr. Faustina one day: “Humanity will not have peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy” (Diary, 300). Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity at the dawn of the third millennium….
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==