Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

59 Ibid. , 154. 60 Ibid., 439. Again, we may want to know in what sense the glorified Savior could “sympathise” with us or “share our pain” if He now reigns in heavenly beatitude. Here we may be up against a mystery which is impossible to fathom. Gerald Vann, O.P., offered some helpful reflec- tions on this mystery in The Pain of Christ and the Sorrow of God , 89- 91. 61 Jean-Pierre De Caussade, S.J., Abandonment to Divine Providence (New York: Image Books, 1975), IV.I, p. 72-73, and IV.6 p. 82. Cf St. Ignatius Loyola, “First Principle and Foundation” of the Spiritual Exercises . The Saint, however, seems to put the emphasis on complete indifference to all created things so that nothing might hinder our active apostolate and service of God. De Caussade does not deny the need to be “actively loyal to the laws of God and the Church, and ful- filling all the duties imposed on us by our way of life” (I.3, p. 24). But he seems to put the emphasis more on “passive loyalty” to God’s will, by which he means that we should “lovingly accept all that God sends us at each moment of the day” (I.3, p. 24). 62 Bélanger, Autobiography (1945 edition), 142. 63 St. Faustina, Diary , no. 1265, p. 456-457 (my emphasis). Cf. diary entry no. 462. 64 Ibid ., no. 57, p. 29. 65 Ibid., no. 279, p. 133. 66 St. Alphonsus Liguori, “The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ” in The Holy Eucharist (Brooklyn: Redemptorist Fathers, 1934), 406. 67 St. Margaret MaryAlacoque, The Letters of St. Margaret MaryAlacoque (Rockford, Ill.: TAN, 1977), 35. 68 St. Augustine, Ennar.In Ps. 87:3 (PL 37, IIII). 69 Sr. Josefa Menendez, The Way of Divine Love , 428. 70 St. Margaret Mary, The Letters , 137 (my emphasis). For a similar atti- tude to suffering see Bl. Dina Belanger, Autobiography , 175. 71 St. Faustina, Diary , no. 742, p. 297-298 and no. 1317, p. 473. 72 Pope John Paul II, TheMercy of God: Dives inMisericordia (Boston: St. Paul Books and Media, 1980), no. 8, p. 28. 73 Bruno Ramazzotti, The Spirituality of the Pierced Heart of Jesus the Good Shepherd (Nairobi: St. Paul Publications, 1992), 50. 74 On the different sets of symbols at work in this image, see George 98 Jesus, Mercy Incarnate