Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

I see your mercy pressing you to give us even more when you leave yourself with us as food to strengthen our weak- ness.... Every day you give us this food, showing us yourself in the sacrament of the altar within the mystic body of holy Church. And what has done this? Your mercy. O mercy! My heart is engulfed with the thought of you! For wherever I turn my thoughts I find nothing but mercy! 25 We can sum up this theological exploration as follows: the Sacred Heart of Jesus is perfectly loving — divine, human, and affectionate love 26 — and therefore all lovable. But whenever the love of His Heart reaches out to us — to our nothingness, our bro- kenness, our woundedness, and our need— that love always takes the form of merciful, compassionate love. Therefore, at the center of 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 princi- ple, 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 the- ological 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 alternatives, 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 DivineMercy flows from the Sacred Heart devotion and completes it so beautifully that, as St. Faustina oncewrote: “the Love of God is the flower, and Mercy the fruit.” 27 113 The Sacred Heart and The Divine Mercy