Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

'My name is sacrifice” : The Mission of Blessed Faustina 101 The saint, modeling himself on Jesus, finds his own identity through Stellvertretung. Reflecting on the identity o f the saint, Menke observes that “the uniqueness (identity) o f the individual consists neither in his outwardly visible function nor in an invisible reality (soul) but rather in a unique receiving and an equally unique giving o f representation ( Stellvertretung).”49 It is not suffering as such, but the love which can suffer which is dominant. This is seen in the experience o f the mystics. For St. John of the Cross, suffering o f itself does not effect union with God, while for St. Paul of the Cross, “it is the love that accepts and accompanies suf­ fering that gives birth to union... only suffering that conforms to the will o f Christ is to be desired, since suffering without Christ ‘is devoid of meaning.’”50 For him, suffering itself is not the main issue: but rather the accom­ plishment o f God’s will.51 The surrender to this will takes the form o f an “infinite trust in God and a deep distrust o f one’s self.”52 For Faustina, freedom is o f the essence: Christ need not have suf­ fered, being divine. And so it is not surprising that Jesus, in inviting her to suffer with Him, points out to Faustina that her free response is what makes this very thing possible. During her tertianship, Jesus began preparing her to become a victim soul to help others, showing her what she must suffer as a victim soul. She was perfectly free: without her con­ sent to this divine project, she could still be saved, and the graces would not lessen.53 We return to our question: why suffering? Pain is that which one would not choose, naturally oriented as we are to pleasure. In the earthy phrase o f one o f her biographers: “Suffering is the only currency by which one can buy another an entrance ticket to heaven”54— yet even the greatest human suffering derives its expiatory character only from “union with Christ.”55 Faustina herself observed: “Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Savior; in suffering love becomes crystallized; the greater the suffering, the purer the love” (57). For St. Paul o f the Cross, suffering is at the heart o f love; he insisted, with certainty, that there is a union between sorrow and love. Again, why must this be so? It is because love demands death to self: if one wants to love another, his I must give way to the Thou o f the other, and