Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

for suffering. The greatest perfection is to ask for nothing, refuse nothing, but give ourselves up to pure love to let our- selves be crucified and consumed according to His will. 70 Thus, it is important to realize that in the life and writings of St. Faustina, St. Margaret Mary, and so many of the saints, suffering is primarily a means, not an end in itself . As we have seen, suffering is an occasion for trust in God, a means to console the crucified Christ and to win souls for Him (co- redemption), an opportunity to practice patient abandonment to His providence and pure (self-forgetful) love of God and neighbour. The goal however, is not to suffer, but to prepare souls for heaven. The saints loved suffering only because they saw in it the crucible in which souls could be refined into perfect love of their Savior: “For He is like a refiners fire...and He shall purify the Sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Mal. 3:2). (a) The Works of Mercy Not all human sufferings are simply to be borne, in faith and love, as a sharing in the Cross of Jesus Christ. Only those crosses which are truly unavoidable, or which must be borne “in the line of duty” in one’s state of life or as part of one’s vocation usually fall into this category. In very many cases, human suffering, both one’s own and that of others, must simply be relieved as much as possible . That is why the same Lord Jesus who asked his disciples to follow Him bravely along the Way of the Cross, also taught them through parables such as the Good Samaritan and the Rich Man and Lazarus, as well as through His own ministry, that God is a God of healing and compassion. His love is not always what we call today “tough love.” It can also be gentle and tender according to the needs of each soul. This is also why, paradoxically, an heroic “victim soul” like St. Faustina Kowalska also could be an exceptional practitioner of the works of compassion and mercy. Jesus spoke to her about this quite strongly on several occasions: 80 Jesus, Mercy Incarnate