Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

24 Ibid ., 66. The sufferings of Jesus during His Agony in the Garden from His prevision of all the ingratitude of future generations is also an impor- tant theme in the devotional literature of the Sacred Heart; see John Croiset, S.J., The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Rockford, Ill.: TAN, 1988), 273-279. 25 Menendez, The Way of Divine Love , 271. 26 St. Bridget of Sweden, Rev. I.1.c.10. 26 St. Alphonsus, The Passion , 82. 28 Ibid ., 192-193. 29 Menendez, The Way of Divine Love , 306, 171. That such were the senti- ments of our Savior upon the Cross is testified by nearly the unanimous consent of the saints, including St. Augustine, St. Basil, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Lawrence Justinian, and St. Alphonsus; cf. St. Alphonsus, The Passion , 50-51, 124-125, 295. 30 St. Bonaventure, The Tree of Life, no. 27, in Bonaventure: The Soul’s Journey into God, The Tree of Life, The Life of St. Francis (New York: The Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, 1978), 150. 31 St. Alphonsus, The Passion, 112-113. 32 See St. Faustina, Diary , entry no 384, p. 174. 33 Perhaps St. Bernardwent too far when he taught that humility is “a virtue by which man, knowing himself exactly as he is, is vile in his own eyes” ( Treatise on the Degrees of Humility , I.2). After all, even fallen man, apart from God’s grace, is still a creature whom God made in His own image, and that “image,” (i.e., that created potential for growth in the divine likeness) although wounded, was not entirely lost by the Fall according to the Council of Trent (DS 1510-1516). Moreover, humility does not exclude a thankful awareness of the virtues which God’s grace may be fashioning in one’s soul. As St. Francis De Sales wrote in Introduction to the Devout Life, III.5, “There is no need to fear that knowledge of his gifts will make us proud if only we remember this truth, that none of the good in us comes from ourselves…. Thus, the Blessed Virgin proclaims that God has done great things for her, but she does so only to humble herself and to glorify God” (Lk. 1:46, 49). 34 According to Fr. Ignacy Rozycki, “trust” is more than the virtue of hope on its own, but involves faith, hope, humility, and contrition all at once. True as this surely is, one might still take issue with Fr. Rozycki’s claim that trust, so defined, is the most difficult of the virtues, preferring to 93 Saint Faustina and Devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ