Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

Notes 1 Pope John Paul II, “Incarnationis Mysterium”, section no.1 (Vatican Englush text). 2 Brian Hebblethwaite, The Incarnation: Collected Essays in Christology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 22. Cf. A. Michael Ramsey, Introducing the Christian Faith (SCM, 1961), 42-43: The divine Creator has humbled himself to take on himself the entire experience of existence as man, in all the conditions of humanity. That is what we call the Incarnation. That is the heart of Christian belief…. God’s answer to our need is to give himself utterly to us in the total self-donation of the Word- made-flesh. 3 J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, second ed. (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1960), 378. Kelly cites St. Athanasius C. Ar. 2, 61 and 3, 33 in this regard. 4 Ibid. , 379-380, 381-382, 396-399. 5 St. Thomas Aquinas, ST III, 34, 2-3. A number of prominent scholars have seen this as implied in Hebrews 10:5-7, 10: Consequently, when he came into the world he said, “Sacrifice and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body has thou prepared for me…” Then I said, “Lo, I have come to do Thy will, O God…” And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. See Luigi Ciappi, O.P. The Heart of Christ: The Centre of the Mystery of Salvation (Rome: CDC Publishers, 1983), 54-55, and Marie-Joseph Lagrange, : L’Evangile de Jésus Christ (Paris: J. Gabalda et Fils, 1928), 46-47. 6 St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Incarnation, Birth, and Infancy of Jesus Christ (Brooklyn: Redemptorist Fathers, 1927), 303-305, 35. (My emphasis). 7 All quotes from Sr. Faustina’s diary in this essay are taken from Sr. M. Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul: Diary (Stockbridge: Marian Press, 1987). 8 Murray Bodo, O.F.M., Francis: The Journey and the Dream (Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1988), 68-70. Cf. Dina Belanger, Autobiography (Montreal: Religious of Jesus and Mary, 1984), 94. Bl. 35 Saint Faustina and Devotion to the Christ Child