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God is Love. Love is not just something that God does for us; Love is the essence of who God is. As St. John tells us in his First Letter: “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16).
Inseparably linked with God’s love is God’s mercy. The two are inseparable. Without God’s love there is no mercy and God is merciful because God is love.
The greatest manifestation of God’s love is His Son and His Son’s earthly mission. As Jesus tells us through the Gospel of St. John,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (3:16-17) (New International Version).
Then again drawing from St. John’s First Letter, we read:
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved usand sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10)(New International Version).
God’s love is the foundation of His mercy. If He is not Love, then He is not merciful. Love produces mercy. His mercy demonstrates His love for us.
God shows us His mercy and His love for us in many ways. I shall highlight several of them. First, as I already stated, He sent His only Son into the world to redeem us from our sins and the restore the relationship between humanity and Divine fractured by Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. There is no more powerful and visible demonstration of God’s mercy and love than the Cross. God holds nothing back. On the Cross, His Son offers himself out of love for God and for us to redeem us from our sins and open up Heaven to us.
Second, Jesus offers himself to us in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the Holy Eucharist, his Body and Blood in sacramental form. He is the Bread of Life. One could also say he is the Bread of Love and Bread of God’s Mercy.
Third, God offers us the Sacrament of Reconciliation. God empowers his holy priests to extend His mercy and love to us in this sacrament in which He forgives us our sins and renews the grace in our souls.
Fourth, Purgatory is another example of God’s mercy and love. True, our Protestant brethren differ from us Catholics on this topic, believing that there are only two options in the post-life: Heaven and Hell. Knowing that we humans are so flawed and incapable of reaching Heaven on our own, God gives us Purgatory as a means of purification and preparation for Heaven.
Lastly, there is the Divine Mercy Devotion. This is one of the most important teachings revealed to us in the last hundred years and, dare I say, since Christ’s Ascension into Heaven.
Barely seven years after Our Blessed Mother’s 1917 appearances at Fatima, Our Blessed Mother and Jesus himself began appearing to a humble Polish nun named Sister Mary (Maria) Faustina Kowalska. Jesus chose her to be his Apostle and Secretary to spread his message of Divine Mercy. In 1934, Jesus told Sister Mary Faustina, “Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy.” Among the messages entrusted to her for dissemination were 1) to celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy on the Sunday after Easter, 2) to spread devotion to Divine Mercy and 3) to spread devotion to a Divine Mercy Chaplet and Divine Mercy image of Jesus. She recorded her meetings with Jesus in a diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, which has been translated and published in numerous languages.
Jesus’s objective in revealing the Divine Mercy message to Sister Faustina was to prepare humanity for his Return. In 1929, Jesus told Sister Faustina: “Write this: before I come as the just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy” (Diary, 83).
Sister Mary Faustina died at the age of 33 on 5 October 1938 of tuberculosis. In time, Sister Mary Faustina’s messages from Jesus about Divine Mercy have spread throughout the world. St. Pope John Paul II canonized her on 30 April 2000, and added the Feast of Divine Mercy to the Universal Liturgical Calendar. Her diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, which Jesus directed her to keep, has been published and is widely available. It is one of the most important books ever written.
The message of Divine Mercy is of the greatest importance to humanity and the coming End of the End Times. I highly encourage all persons to obtain and read Divine Mercy in My Soul or at a minimum familiarize themselves with the Divine Mercy Devotion through the Marians of the Immaculate Conception website https://www.thedivinemercy.org/ and/or their print materials. In addition, pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and pray for Divine Mercy. The future of humanity is literally depending upon Divine Mercy. Together, the Divine Mercy messages and those of Our Lady’s appearances at Fatima are the most vital private revelations of the 20th Century for the faithful.
God knows the darkness that permeates our world. He sent His Son into the world to counter that darkness. He sent His Son into the world on a mission of mercy and love. That mission has not ended. The Divine Mercy Devotion is an important way that we can participate in that mission. Through the Divine Mercy devotion, we can help Christ in his mission of saving souls from eternal damnation.
Bryan J. Dickerson is an author and historian specializing in military and naval history, and Catholicism. He earned his BA in History from Rowan University (NJ), MA in American History from Monmouth University (NJ) and a graduate Certificate in Archival Studies from Louisiana State University. His writings have appeared online and in print in such publications as Columbia (the magazine of the Knights of Columbus) and Celebrate Life (the magazine of the American Life League). He is a 4th Degree member of the Knights of Columbus and a Past Grand Knight of a council in New Jersey. His book The Liberators of Pilsen: the U.S. 16th Armored Division in World War II Czechoslovakia was published by McFarland Books in 2018 and his book Dive Bomber Down: James A. Nist Naval Aviator in the Pacific War is now available from McFarland Books. He has also self-published sixeen books, including In the Name of COVID: The Assault on Religious Freedom in 2020. A former U.S. Navy Reserve Religious Program Specialist 1st Class (Fleet Marine Force), he mobilized and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom twice. He and his wife Lisa have four children and live in southern New Jersey.
