Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

“My name is sacrifice” : The Mission of Blessed Faustina 99 gled out as a special target o f God’s justice, unless it turns to become the special object o f his Mercy, as he desires. According to Faustina, Poland is a country especially beloved by Jesus and destined for great things — if it will remain faithful to him. Like Sts. Catherine o f Siena and Joan of Arc, “she often heard Jesus and his Mother Mary telling her to pray for her native land, Poland.”35 She served as an intercessor for her native land. Jesus told her: “For your sake I bless the entire country” (39). Yet he was also grieved by the country’s “ingratitude” (1188). She is much tormented by the sinfulness o f her nation, not least by the crime o f abortion for which she would experience reparatory suffering. Judgment: Mercy Comes through Suffering Here we come to the heart o f the matter: Mercy is “bought” at a price. Christ’s Passion and death are not just exemplars of God’s Mercy extended to all: they actually effect that Mercy. Why is this so? Although no one answer suggests itself, there are indications, pointers, in her work. Faustina writes: “The greater the suf­ fering, the purer the love,” and in the greatest love which is that o f the Trinity, revealed in Christ - and Christ crucified - the Church contem­ plates a suffering beyond any o f which humans are capable. Faustina would write: “I would rather be with him in afflictions and suffering than without him in the greatest heavenly delights” (912). In this, she echoes much in the tradition o f the mystics o f the Passion. St. Paul of the Cross made a demand, “repeated over and over again, that meditation begin with the humanity o f Christ, especially of Christ in his passion, in order to attain vision in faith and profound contempla­ tive prayer.”38And, anticipating Faustina, St. Paul o f the Cross, tempted to doubt his salvation, “trusted still more in Divine Mercy just as a child has trust in a mother’s arms.”39Why this emphasis on the sufferings of Christ? Stellvertretung: Substitutionary Suffering Recent theology has been showing renewed interest in the whole notion o f Stellvertretung, most clearly seen in Jesus’ vicarious death for sinners on the Cross. For Balthasar, that which clearly distinguishes the mission o f Jesus from that o f the prophets is in the “ ‘/ o r ’ o f Stellvertretung ”40 as seen in the “suffering servant.” Indeed, as Norbert Hoffman’s study o f the subject indicates, such vicarious suffering is at