Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

Saint Faustina and Devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ A story is told about the great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas: one day he was paying a visit to the Franciscan St. Bonaventure, and he asked St. Bonaventure fromwhat book he had drawn all the beautiful lessons he had written. St. Bonaventure then showed him an image of the crucified Lord, and said “This is my book whence I receive everything that I write, and it has taught me whatever little I know.” 1 In one place in his own writings St. Bonaventure is even reputed to have said, “there is no prac- tice more profitable for the entire sanctification of the soul than frequent meditation on the sufferings of Christ.” 2 Howwell this teaching of St. Bonaventure fits with the message of St. Paul the apostle. For St. Paul tells us in I Cor. 2:2: When I came to you brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Clearly, for St. Paul, as for St. Bonaventure after him, the true testimony of the love of God for us is written in the “book” of the Passion of Jesus Christ. One of the greatest devotees of the Passion of our Redeemer, St. Alphonsus Liguori, tells us that the mystery of the Cross should be at the center of the spiritual life of every Catholic. He writes: The same ought to be said to those Catholics who, believing as they do the Passion of Jesus, yet do not think of it. Ah, were all men to think upon the love which Jesus Christ has shown forth for us in his death, who would ever be able not to love him? It was for this end, says the Apostle Paul, that our beloved Redeemer died for us, that, by the love he displayed towards us in