Pillars of Fire In My Soul

Therefore, it is the same as His Divine Person. The whole for- mulation taken in its entirety (“Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ”) signifies the wholeness of the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God Incarnate. In other words, we are offering both His Divine Personality and His Humanity composed of body and soul. The whole Person of the Incarnate Son of God can be offered by us to God the Father since, according to the letter to the Ephesians. God the Son Himself, fulfilling the mission entrust- ed to Him by God, “delivered Himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice” (Eph 5:2). From this Pauline text, it follows that the object of the sacrifice offered to God the Father by Christ was Christ Himself, namely, His entire humanity as well as His Divine Person. As we say the Chaplet and recite these words, we unite ourselves with the Sacrifice of the Cross offered by Jesus for our salvation. And when we emphasize in this word- ing that it is precisely the dearly beloved Son that we offer to the Father, then we appeal to the love bestowed by the eternal Father on His Son suffering for us. In consequence, we also appeal to the love of the eternal Father for all mankind, namely, that love which found its highest expression in the sorrowful Passion of Jesus. In other words, we turn to the strongest motive in order to be heard by God. “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion” is not an appeal to the satisfaction which Jesus offered for our sins. Fidelity to the spirit and letter of the Devotion demands rather an appeal to the love and Mercy of the Father and Son for us, and to that love which is attested by the sufferings of the Son. In other words, we again emphasize the strongest motive upon which the effi- cacy of the Chaplet is based; we briefly call: “May so much hardship, so much suffering not be in vain.” We repeat the same idea which Thomas of Celano expressed in the hymn, Dies Irae: “Exhausted You sought me, crucified You saved me, may Your Wounds not be in vain.” Essential Features of the Devotion to The Divine Mercy 117