Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

“My name is sacrifice”: The Mission of Blessed Faustina 95 light comes, is the source o f this Mercy for the world. And this suffering was experienced by Faustina as well. For Balthasar, the spiritual subject ( Geistsubject ) is called to a greater fullness realized in becoming a person: and that is ultimately to share in the dynamically personal being o f the Trinity. He writes: “every human spiritual subject (only) has a share in being a person insofar as in its blessing in Christ (Begnadung in Christus ) it receives a share in one aspect and fragment o f his all-saving mission.” Faustina felt unmistakably called to a mission from Christ: He him­ self called this unlikely candidate his “secretary and apostle of The Divine Mercy.”33Her mission to the world from start to finish was to make God’s Mercy known. This would take various forms. Christ par­ ticularly missioned her to found a new order, a mission which was to cause her much confusion and suffering; to create a picture o f him; to institute Divine Mercy Sunday; to introduce the devotions known as the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena. The creation o f the image o f Jesus presented Faustina with particular difficulties. In the first instance, a problem arose from the fact that she was herself no artist. As might be expected, the best efforts o f a devot­ ed artist left her disappointed, not measuring up at all to the person of her visions. Indeed, there have been several images made over succeed­ ing decades. Many difficulties have colored this, not the least the fact that the original painting was commissioned in the city o f Vilno, which a year after her death was annexed to the Soviet Union. Regardless, we can see clearly that Jesus is the “icon o f the Mercy of God.” It was one o f Faustina’s great concerns that this image o f him be known and venerated, and it was a great consolation to her that such began even in her lifetime, at so public a place as the shrine of Ostrabrama in Vilno. In the history o f the Church, some feasts have resulted from private revelations: Corpus Christi from Bl. Julianna of Cornillon; the Sacred Heart, from St. Margaret Mary Alacoque; the Immaculate Heart of Mary, promulgated by Pius XII in light o f Fatima. Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Easter, designated by Jesus to Faustina, seems to be mak­ ing steady progress as with papal support and building on private devo­ tions it is spreading to parishes worldwide.