Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

A similar teaching can be found in the encyclical Dives in Misericordia of Pope John Paul II. He tells us of the centrality of the Heart of Jesus in revealing God’s mercy: The Church seems in a special way to profess the mercy of God and to venerate it when she directs herself to the Heart of Christ. In fact, it is precisely this drawing close to Christ in the mystery of His Heart which enables us to dwell on ... the merciful love of the Father, which constituted the central con- tent of the messianic mission of the Son of Man. 18 In short, according to saints, visionaries, and popes, we need to be devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, at the same time, to have a special devotion to the Divine Mercy that flows to us from His Heart. 2. The Sacred Heart overflows with Merciful Love for us We need to try to understand, theologically, why it is said that the Divine Mercy and the Sacred Heart are inseparable. Basically, there is a short answer, and a long answer to this ques- tion. The short answer is: Jesus has only one Heart ! His Sacred Heart is His Merciful Heart — they are one and the same. The Sacred Heart overflows with merciful love for us, and that is why, in principle at least, these two devotions are inseparable. 19 The long answer to this question, however, takes us right back to the fundamentals of the theology of the Heart of Jesus. The human heart is the symbol of the deepest mystery of a per- son. When we talk about someone’s heart, we are talking about what really “makes him tick:” what the person really, deep down, thinks and feels and desires. As the Catechism tells us in no. 2563: The heart is our hidden center , beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart, and know it fully. 20 Again, our heart is the deepest mystery of our person; it is our “hidden center,” fromwhichmost of what we think and do and say proceeds. 21 110 Jesus, Mercy Incarnate