Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

NOTES 1 This story is recorded in St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ (Brooklyn: Redemptorist Fathers, 1927), 21. 2 Ibid., 20. St. Alphonsus may be referring here to a statement made by St. Bonaventure, recorded in Sermon II on good Friday, in St. Bonaventure, Doctoris Seraphici S. Baonaventurae opera omnia, vol. IX (Quaracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventure, 1882-1902), 265. 3 Ibid., 152 (my emphasis added). St. Alphonsus refers here to Romans 14:9. 4 All quotes from St. Faustina’s diary in this essay are taken from Blessed Sr. M. Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul , third edition (Stockbridge: Marians of the Immaculate Conception, 1998) My empha- sis added. 5 This is also why non-incarnational versions of Christianity, which have become popular in liberal Protestant circles, are ultimately so unsatisfac- tory. As John Austin Baker wrote in The Foolishness of God (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1970), p. 407: It is inconceivable to me that love could ever say: “I must save these children of mine and that will mean the most terrible suffering. I will find someone else to do the job.” Love does not send others to suffer in its place. Love comes itself. 6 See, for example, the words of St. MaryMagdalene of Pazzi recorded by St. Alphonsus in The Passion , 351-352: “My justice is changed into mercy through the vengeance that was taken upon the innocent flesh of Jesus Christ.” 7 The Foolishness of God , 304. 8 John Saward, “Love’s Second Name: St. Thomas on Mercy,” in The Canadian Catholic Review , March, 1990, p. 93. 9 Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, ST III, 1, 2. 10 Catechism , no. 606-607, p. 11 St. Alphonsus, The Passion , 238 (my emphasis). 12 Cf. St. Alphonsus, The Passion , 22. 13 Ibid. , 28. 14 Catechism , no. 478, p. 121. The text locates this loving knowledge inHis “human heart.” See also the text cited in the reference note from Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis , DS 3812. 90 Jesus, Mercy Incarnate