Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

106 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel Christian life, one focused on and flowing from the Eucharist, is perhaps the single most valuable element to be retrieved from the tradition as lived by Blessed Faustina.76The Chaplet o f Mercy itself consists in this basic prayer: “Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity o f your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atone­ ment for our sins and those of the whole world. For the sake o f his sor­ rowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” A member of her congregation describes Faustina’s identification with the sacrifice of the Mass thus: Gradually a heroic longing crystallized out in her to become a sacrificial victim, a scapegoat or “host.” It was now no longer enough to offer up to God her own mortifications, prayers, and suffering, and hence, on Good Friday 1934 she made a written voluntary act of self-immolation to God for sinners, particularly those who had lost hope of God’s mercy. On account of this, in total deference to the will o f God, she undertook to accept all the torments, fears, sufferings and anxieties that sinners experienced, and in return to offer them the consolation which comes from close union with God. From that moment on she could say that she was called the “host” o f sacrifice.77 According to this sister, Sr. Faustina “knew very well at what price souls could be ‘redeemed’: it is suffering conjoined with the Passion of Christ.”78 Jesus showed her how much He had suffered for her: “All of a sudden, the divine Presence invaded me, and I forgot everything else. Jesus gave me to understand how much He had suffered for me” (26). And she herself shared in Christ’s Passion: “On many occasions she bodily experienced the concealed stigmata (705, 1055), the crown of thorns (759), and spiritually and physically she went through the whole Passion (1663).”79 If through Faustina, “many souls returned to the Lord,” it was at a price: “I was in agony under the yoke o f God’s justice. I felt I was the object of the anger o f the most High God” (927). It is a righteous anger, one directed at the sin; she is in love with the Holy One whose love becomes wrath in the face o f sin and wants His love to win, to be known. Her soul could be a “sea of suffering” for “sinners have taken everything away from me. But that is all right; I have given everything away for their sake that they might know that You are good and infi­