Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

O Holy Trinity, Eternal God, I thank You for allowing me to know the greatness and the various degrees of glory to which souls attain. Oh, what a great difference of depth in the knowledge of God there is between one degree and another! Oh, if people could only know this! O my God, if I were thereby able to obtain one more degree, I would gladly suffer all the torments of the martyrs put together. Truly, all those torments seem as nothing to me compared with the glory that is awaiting us for all eternity. OLord, immerse my soul in the ocean of Your divinity and grant me the grace of knowing You; for the better I knowYou, the more I desireYou, and the more my love for You grows. I feel in my soul an unfath- omable abyss which only God can fill. I lose myself in Him as a drop does in the ocean. 78 The sight of this great majesty of God, which I came to understand more profoundly and which is worshipped by the heavenly spirits according to their degree of grace and the hierarchies intowhich they are divided, did not causemy soul to be stricken with terror or fear; no,no, not at all! My soul was filled with peace and love, and the more I come to know the greatness of God, the more joyful I become that He is as He is. And I rejoice immensely in His greatness and am delighted that I am so little because, since I am little, He car- ries me in His arms and holds me close to His Heart. 79 One of the most persistent criticisms of the Catholic doctrine of heaven is that it allegedly distracts us from zealous concern for making a better world here below. Yet, as we have seen, the very same St. Faustina who was transported by visions of the risen and glorified Jesus, and the wonders of heaven above, was also, at the same time a devoted practitioner of the works of mercy, by our Savior’s own command. She did not see any contradiction between earthly effort and heavenly hope. On the contrary, it was precisely the compassionate love of the risen Lord for her, and the eternal destiny He is preparing for all those who trust in Him that 86 Jesus, Mercy Incarnate