Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

64 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel be proclaimed to all people. She recorded the words o f our Lord as fol­ lows: How often in the course of the ages have I, in one way or another, made known my love for men: I have shown them how ardently I desire their salvation. I have revealed my Heart to them. This devotion has been as light cast over the whole earth, and today is a powerful means o f gaining souls, and so o f extending My kingdom. Now I want something more, for if I long for love in response to My own, this is not the only return I desire from souls: I want them all to have confidence in My mercy, to expect all from My clemency, and never to doubt My readiness to forgive. This is what I wish all to know. I will teach sinners that the mercy of My Heart is inexhaustible. Let the callous and indiffer­ ent know that My Heart is a fire which will enkindle them, because I love them... above all that they should trust Me, and never doubt My mercy. It is so easy to trust completely in My Heart!... My Heart is not only an abyss of love; it is also an abyss of mercy.16 In addition to the saints and visionaries who have seen the Sacred Heart o f Jesus as inseparable from His Divine Mercy, two of the popes of the twentieth century have explicitly taught the same thing. In his encyclical on the Sacred Heart, Haurietis Aquas (1956), Pope Pius XII wrote: Christ our Lord, exposing His Sacred Heart, wished in a quite extraordinary way to invite the minds o f men to a contemplation of, and devotion to, the mystery o f God’s merciful love for the human race. In this special manifestation Christ pointed to His Heart, with definite and repeated words, as the symbol by which men should be attracted to a knowledge and recognition o f His love; and at the same time He established it as a sign or pledge of mercy and grace for the needs o f the Church and our times.17 A similar teaching can be found in the encyclical Dives in Misericordia o f Pope John Paul II. He tells us o f the centrality o f the Heart of Jesus in revealing God’s mercy: