Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

made her appreciate the tremendous worth and dignity of every human life. Nations, empires, class and racial allegiances – there is nothing about these things in her visions of heaven, for these things are the temporal, passing, relatively worthless realities of life. It is individual human beings for whom our Lord has compassion and for whom He died and rose again; it is individual human beings who can live for ever with Him; it is individual human beings who have the potential for eternal beatitude. It is also important to notice that St. Faustina sees the blessed in heaven filled with supreme “happiness.” Given the horrible sufferings that many human beings have to endure (including “victim souls”), and that some are called to endure for the sake of the Gospel, it is both just and comforting for the faithful to know that their sufferings will one day have an end. The hope of heaven helps them to endure in faith and love whatever afflictions the powers of this world may have in store for them. As St. Peter wrote (I Peter 1:3-6): Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritancewhich is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you...In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials.... Moreover, when St. Faustina tells us that in heaven the divine source of happiness is “unchanging...but always new, gushing forth happiness for all creatures,” how can we fail to recall the vision of St. John of the glories of heaven, and of the river of the water of life, and of the One who says “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:3-5): Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning 87 Saint Faustina and Devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ