Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

The Mercy of God and Modern Medicine 141 Charter and present two chapters for you. One is the identity o f the healthcare worker, who is called to show mercy to the sick in a particu­ lar way. The other chapter is on the needs o f the dying which I will illus­ trate with passages from the Diary o f Sister Faustina, to show you how her own words confirm the Church’s understanding, and the under­ standing o f medical science, about the needs o f dying persons. Now what is the objective o f all o f this? You know yourself that in modem language and in headlines the term “mercy” is most usually attached to killing! So, for one thing, you need to be able to go back to your communities and speak o f mercy authentically. And that means you are going to need to answer questions in this regard, and as any of you know who have done any speaking at all, when you offer a period of time for questions and answers people will think you are an expert on everything. And so all kinds o f questions are brought forward. And, for another thing, a very effective group that has not been tapped yet as apostles of Divine Mercy is that o f healthcare workers, professionals and volunteers, doctors, nurses, anyone who is connected with health­ care, anyone who is connected with hospice, meals on wheels, or any such program. The message o f Divine Mercy will be for them a tremen­ dous comfort and strength. It will also be an effective means for them to be emissaries and channels o f Divine Mercy for the souls who pass through their hands and through their hearts. In this we want to hear vividly the words that Faustina writes in entry no. 935, “My contact with the dying is, just as it has been in the past, very close. I often accompa­ ny a person who is dying far away, but my greatest joy is when I see the promise o f Mercy fulfilled in these souls.” And these are the words that we should have bold-faced in our hearts: “The Lord is faithful. What He once ordains, He fulfills. ” In the last years, particularly in the United States, we have heard a great deal about the Church’s preferential option for the poor. I suggest to you that the greatest poverty that is experienced by men and women is a common poverty: it is the poverty o f sickness, the poverty o f illness, which sooner or later every man and woman in this world faces. And that poverty can take the good, the joy, the power, the influence out of any other form of richness possessed. So when we look to the needs of the sick and suffering, we are making a preferential option for the poor. On February 11th, 1984, Pope John Paul II published his Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Dolores, On the Christian Meaning o fHuman Suffering.