Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

68 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel passionate love. Therefore, at the center o f our devotional life - our “first love” - should be the Sacred and Merciful Heart of Jesus. The Sacred Heart overflows with mercy and compassion for us - and that is what makes devotion to the Heart of Jesus and devotion to His Divine Mercy, in principle, absolutely inseparable. 3. The Devotion to the Sacred Heart easily blends with the Devotion to The Divine Mercy It is understandable that on a practical level, some people fear that these two devotions could become a “double-burden.” In other words, despite their theological compatibility, and indeed their theological inseparability, nevertheless, any attempt by individuals or parishes to practice both at once could run into serious difficulties. That is why, as a practical matter, some people still see these two devotions as alterna­ tives, rather than as joining together to form two complementary sides of a greater whole. However, we shall show that the practice of these two devotions does not become a double-burden. Rather, the Divine Mercy flows from the Sacred Heart devotion and completes it so beautifully that, as Blessed Faustina once wrote: “the Love o f God is the flower, and Mercy the fruit.”27 Let us look at each aspect o f the Sacred Heart devotion in particular, and show how it naturally blossoms into the Mercy devotion as well. (a) Veneration o f the Images The Lord Jesus specifically requested o f St. Margaret Mary that the image o f His Sacred Heart should be honored and venerated by all the faithful. In His first apparition to her of 1673, for example, our Lord had said: My Divine Heart is so passionately in love with men that it can no longer withhold the flames o f that burning love; it must needs let them spread abroad by means o f you, and reveal itself to men to enrich them with its profound treasures.28 Then in His second apparition to her (1674), Jesus pictured His Sacred Heart for her, and made His designs more explicit: After that I saw this divine Heart as on a throne of flames,