Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

88 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel We are concerned, then, with the meaning o f sacrifice in the context o f a reconciliation of sanctity and theology. Giving focus to our two themes, Balthasar2— echoed by others, such as Gustav Aulen3— has urged the development of a Passiology in the Church, especially from the lives of the mystics. A major contribution here has been the work of G. Bialas4 on the Passiology o f St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, whose mission was to spread knowledge of and devotion to Christ’s Passion. The Passion o f Christ is understood “principally as an expression of God’s love for all people, and to participate in this passion is to suffer and die with Jesus, which above all means to accept and bear all unavoidable, innocent suffering or sorrow as the Cross of Christ.”5 Anticipating the experience of Blessed Faustina, Bialas observes: “Closely related to the idea o f entering into or participating in the pas­ sion and death o f Jesus is the concept mystical death.”6 For St. Paul, “occasions o f spiritual and physical suffering were opportunities to enter existentially into the mysticism of the cross and passion.”7 Like Blessed Faustina, St. Paul of the Cross was not a scientifically trained theologian, yet Bialas quotes Karl Rahner on the Spiritual Exercises to say: “There is a pious literature which antecedes theologi­ cal reflection which is more original than the latter [and] which is wiser and more experienced than the school o f wisdom.”8 Even so, Faustina Kowalska is in some ways an unlikely candidate for an investigation along the lines o f Balthasar’s or Bialas’, and no more is intended here than an introductory sketch. She was far less intel­ lectually sophisticated than either o f the “two sisters in spirit” : Therese, whom she took for a model9 or Elizabeth. A cloistered nun who spent much of her life in kitchens and gardens, she had little of the theologi­ cal formation Paul had as a priest. Yet her work as “secretary of God’s mercy” has had tremendous devotional impact, especially since the accession o f John Paul II to the papacy. He himself seems to have been profoundly influenced by her as his early encyclical, Dives in Misericordia suggests. It was the Pope’s efforts that rescued Faustina’s mission from a state bordering on con­ demnation, and lifted her to the altars. The popular devotions which she felt called to initiate - Mercy Sunday, the Chaplet and Novena to The Divine Mercy - affect the lives