Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

The Mercy of God and Modern Medicine 153 plex in the changes of relationships that occur among the dying when children suddenly become the care givers, the self-sufficient become dependent and leaders have to be led by the hand and rely on the hearts o f others. A fourth element o f pain — and all of these elements o f pain are inter­ twined — is spiritual pain. Spiritual pain for its part is expressed through a loss of the sense of value, significance and meaning for one’s life and one’s place in the world. This can take the form o f thinking that you have known God’s Will all along; you have responded to it heroically; you have been an active apostle; and suddenly you are faced with an inca­ pacitating illness that is going to end in death. What is God telling you now? Our perceptions o f God have to re-adjust. This spiritual pain is felt by everybody. It is felt by saints; it is felt by sinners; and it is felt by those who have no religion whatsoever. And the people who have no religion whatsoever usually are suffering more than even everybody else because they do not have any language or concept to frame the horrible questions that are forming within them, that never become complete sentences because they do not have the nouns, they only have the verbs. So, spiritual pain is both inescapable and variable. Everyone needs a framework for meaning, a reason to live and a reason to die. People who are dying often seek a larger landscape o f meaning, and they need to be a part o f a community. That is why our Blessed Lord brings back so many people so wonderfully at the end o f their lives. And He has given us this magnificent tool in the devotion to The Divine Mercy, and par­ ticularly in the Chaplet, to do this. In my ten years in hospital work (and I have been present at the death-beds of some one-thousand people), I have found again and again and again incredible healing through the Chaplet. I have seen remissions that have allowed people the strength to make peace with their families. I have seen trust and joy at the use o f the Image of Divine Mercy. I have seen lives that have been completely, totally, averse to God, turned around completely. I know of one case in which a Satanic pact was broken because people began praying the Chaplet o f Divine Mercy for a dying A.I.D.S. patient. And his entire life was turned around through a series o f steps that can only be miraculous. Unfortunately, the Congregation for the causes o f Saints does not accept “moral” miracles. It only accepts “physical” miracles. It was the inter­ cession of Sister Faustina and the praying of the Chaplet that caused tremendous change in this life in particular that I am thinking of, and in