Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

188 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel religious of the Congregation o f Sisters o f Our Lady of Mercy, the Lord of History and of our destinies entrusted this great mission: “Today, I am sending you to all mankind with My mercy {Diary, 1588); you are the secretary o f My mercy that you may make known to souls the great mercy I have for them and to exhort them to trust in my bottomless mercy {Diary, 1567). The message that the merciful Jesus communicates to us through Blessed Faustina, as a “private” revelation, does not have as its function to better or complete the definitive revelation o f Christ, {Catechism, no. 67) but to help us to live more fully the mystery of the Divine Mercy in this epoch of history. For this reason, the Church, which is in Christ a sign and instrument of the intimate union with God and of the unity o f the whole human race {Lumen Gentium, no. 1) and which realizes the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit {Catechism, no. 737) “gathers the message o f mercy and takes it more efficiently to the generation at the end o f this millennium and to the future ones the light o f hope (Discourse by Pope John Paul II at the Sanctuary o f Divine Mercy). Everyone is called by The Divine Mercy to hear “in the depths o f his own soul what Blessed Faustina heard: ‘Fear nothing, I am with you always’. And if this person responds with a sincere heart: ‘Jesus, I trust in You,’ he will find comfort in all his anxieties and fears” (His Holiness, John Paul II, Discourse pronounced at the Shrine o f The Divine Mercy). In this dialogue o f abandonment there is established between Man and Christ a special bond that sets love free. And, “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Certainly this call invites each one of us, as Church, to profess and to proclaim this Divine Mercy; to implore it and to live it and to celebrate it {Dives in Misericordia, no. 13). To profess and proclaim the Divine Mercy in all its truth is to listen to its message, to understand it, to make it the norm o f our own lives, to celebrate it with the brothers and sisters and to announce it. To implore Mercy consists in bringing men and women to the foun­ tain o f the Mercy o f the Savior, o f which the Church is the depository