Pillars of Fire In My Soul

and which this Devotion demands from us is simply the love of God and the love of neighbor in us. A second conclusion of great importance flows from the fact that the mercy of which we speak in this Devotion contains a Biblical meaning. In truth, repeatedly and quite clearly, the revelations and Sister Helen Faustina call mercy a Divine attribute. We cannot explain or understand this manner of speaking in the strict philosophical-theological sense, but rather in the Biblical sense of the Old and New Testament. In the philosophical-theological sense, the characteristic or attribute of the Divine nature is that perfection, that quality, which in its essence is found in the nature of God; it is possessed by It. In this sense, all of God’s attributes are God, one and the same. For this reason, all are absolutely equal to each other. Divine Mercy is as infinitely perfect as His Wisdom or Power, for it is likewise God, and the same God, just as Divine Wisdom and Divine Power are God. If, on the other hand, mercy is understood in the Biblical sense as functional, then, even though it is called an attribute, it first of all denotes the manifestations and results of the infinite and eternal love of God in world history, and especially in the history of mankind’s salvation. In fact, both hesed (i.e. mercy in the Old Testament) as well as eleos (i.e. mercy in the New Testament) signify active manifestations of God’s love toward mankind. In the Old Testament the manifestations found their expression in the calling and directing of the chosen people, and in the New Testament they were found in the sending of the Son of God into the world, and in the entire work of redemption. This Biblically formulated relationship between love and mercy is expressed by Sister Helen Faustina in the words: “Love is the flower, mercy the fruit” (Diary §948), “pure love is my guide in life, but externally its fruit is mercy” (Diary §1363). So, if we understand mercy functionally in the Biblical sense, then without any fear of error contrary to the faith, it can 96 Pillars of Fire in My Soul