HOMILY OF THE CANONIZATION OF SR. Maria FAUSTINA KOWALSKA
H.H. John Paul II
Sunday, April 30, 2000
1. "Confitemini
Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius";
"Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love
endures for ever" (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the
Octave of Easter, as if receiving from Christ's lips these words
of the Psalm; from the lips of the risen Christ, who bears the
great message of divine mercy and entrusts its ministry to the
Apostles in the Upper Room: "Peace be with you. As the Father
has sent me, even so I send you.... Receive the Holy Spirit. If
you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain
the sins of any, they are retained" (Jn 20: 21-23).
Before speaking these
words, Jesus shows his hands and his side. He points, that is,
to the wounds of the Passion, especially the wound in his heart,
the source from which flows the great wave of mercy poured out
on humanity. From that heart Sr Faustina Kowalska, the blessed
whom from now on we will call a saint, will see two rays of
light shining from that heart and illuminating the world:
"The two rays", Jesus himself explained to her one day,
"represent blood and water" (Diary, Libreria Editrice
Vaticana, p. 132).
2. Blood and water! We immediately think of the testimony
given by the Evangelist John, who, when a solider on Calvary
pierced Christ's side with his spear, sees blood and water
flowing from it (cf. Jn 19: 34). Moreover, if the blood
recalls the sacrifice of the Cross and the gift of the
Eucharist, the water, in Johannine symbolism, represents not
only Baptism but also the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn
3: 5; 4: 14; 7: 37-39).
Divine Mercy reaches
human beings through the heart of Christ crucified: "My
daughter, say that I am love and mercy personified", Jesus
will ask Sr Faustina (Diary, p. 374). Christ pours out
this mercy on humanity though the sending of the Spirit who, in
the Trinity, is the Person-Love. And is not mercy love's "second
name" (cf. Dives in misericordia, n. 7), understood in
its deepest and most tender aspect, in its ability to take upon
itself the burden of any need and, especially, in its immense
capacity for forgiveness?
Today my joy is truly
great in presenting the life and witness of Sr Faustina
Kowalska to the whole Church as a gift of God for our time.
By divine Providence, the life of this humble daughter of Poland
was completely linked with the history of the 20th century, the
century we have just left behind. In fact, it was between the
First and Second World Wars that Christ entrusted his message of
mercy to her. Those who remember, who were witnesses and
participants in the events of those years and the horrible
sufferings they caused for millions of people, know well how
necessary was the message of mercy.
Jesus told Sr Faustina:
"Humanity will not find peace until it turns trustfully to
divine mercy" (Diary, p. 132). Through the work of
the Polish religious, this message has become linked for ever to
the 20th century, the last of the second millennium and the
bridge to the third. It is not a new message but can be
considered a gift of special enlightenment that helps us to
relive the Gospel of Easter more intensely, to offer it as a ray
of light to the men and women of our time.
3. What will the years
ahead bring us? What will man's future on earth be like? We are
not given to know. However, it is certain that in addition to
new progress there will unfortunately be no lack of painful
experiences. But the light of divine mercy, which the Lord in a
way wished to return to the world through Sr Faustina's charism,
will illumine the way for the men and women of the third
millennium.
However, as the
Apostles once did, today too humanity must welcome into the
upper room of history the risen Christ, who shows the wounds of
his Crucifixion and repeats: Peace be with you! Humanity
must let itself be touched and pervaded by the Spirit given to
it by the risen Christ. It is the Spirit who heals the wounds of
the heart, pulls down the barriers that separate us from God and
divide us from one another, and at the same time, restores the
joy of the Father's love and of fraternal unity.
4. It is important then that we accept the whole message that
comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of
Easter, which from now on throughout the Church will be
called "Divine Mercy Sunday". In the various readings, the
liturgy seems to indicate the path of mercy which, while
re-establishing the relationship of each person with God, also
creates new relations of fraternal solidarity among human
beings. Christ has taught us that "man not only receives and
experiences the mercy of God, but is also called "to practise
mercy' towards others: "Blessed are the merciful, for they
shall obtain mercy' (Mt 5: 7)" (Dives et misericordia,
n. 14). He also showed us the many paths of mercy, which not
only forgives sins but reaches out to all human needs. Jesus
bent over every kind of human poverty, material and spiritual.
His message of mercy
continues to reach us through his hands held out to suffering
man. This is how Sr Faustina saw him and proclaimed him to
people on all the continents when, hidden in her convent at Łagiewniki
in Kraków, she made her life a hymn to mercy: Misericordias
Domini in aeternum cantabo.
5. Sr Faustina's
canonization has a particular eloquence: by this act I intend
today to pass this message on to the new millennium. I pass it
on to all people, so that they will learn to know ever better
the true face of God and the true face of their brethren.
In fact, love of God
and love of one's brothers and sisters are inseparable, as the
First Letter of John has reminded us: "By this we know that we
love the children of God, when we love God and obey his
commandments" (5: 2). Here the Apostle reminds us of the truth
of love, showing us its measure and criterion in the observance
of the commandments.
It is not easy to love
with a deep love, which lies in the authentic gift of self. This
love can only be learned by penetrating the mystery of God's
love. Looking at him, being one with his fatherly heart, we are
able to look with new eyes at our brothers and sisters, with an
attitude of unselfishness and solidarity, of generosity and
forgiveness. All this is mercy!
To the extent that
humanity penetrates the mystery of this merciful gaze, it will
seem possible to fulfil the ideal we heard in today's first
reading: "The community of believers were of one heart and one
mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather
everything was held in common" (Acts 4: 32). Here mercy
gave form to human relations and community life; it constituted
the basis for the sharing of goods. This led to the spiritual
and corporal "works of mercy". Here mercy became a concrete way
of being "neighbour" to one's neediest brothers and sisters.
6. Sr Faustina Kowalska wrote in her Diary: "I feel
tremendous pain when I see the sufferings of my neighbours. All
my neighbours' sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry
their anguish in my heart in such a way that it even physically
destroys me. I would like all their sorrows to fall upon me, in
order to relieve my neighbour" (Diary, p. 365). This
is the degree of compassion to which love leads, when it takes
the love of God as its measure!
It is this love which
must inspire humanity today, if it is to face the crisis of the
meaning of life, the challenges of the most diverse needs and,
especially, the duty to defend the dignity of every human
person. Thus the message of divine mercy is also implicitly a
message about the value of every human being. Each person is
precious in God's eyes; Christ gave his life for each one; to
everyone the Father gives his Spirit and offers intimacy.
7. This consoling
message is addressed above all to those who, afflicted by a
particularly harsh trial or crushed by the weight of the sins
they committed, have lost all confidence in life and are tempted
to give in to despair. To them the gentle face of Christ is
offered; those rays from his heart touch them and shine upon
them, warm them, show them the way and fill them with hope. How
many souls have been consoled by the prayer "Jesus, I trust
in you", which Providence intimated through Sr Faustina!
This simple act of abandonment to Jesus dispels the thickest
clouds and lets a ray of light penetrate every life. Jezu,
ufam tobie.
8. Misericordias
Domini in aeternum cantabo (Ps 88 [89]: 2). Let us
too, the pilgrim Church, join our voice to the voice of Mary
most holy, "Mother of Mercy", to the voice of this new saint who
sings of mercy with all God's friends in the heavenly Jerusalem.
And you, Faustina, a
gift of God to our time, a gift from the land of Poland to the
whole Church, obtain for us an awareness of the depth of divine
mercy; help us to have a living experience of it and to bear
witness to it among our brothers and sisters. May your message
of light and hope spread throughout the world, spurring sinners
to conversion, calming rivalries and hatred and opening
individuals and nations to the practice of brotherhood. Today,
fixing our gaze with you on the face of the risen Christ, let us
make our own your prayer of trusting abandonment and say with
firm hope: Christ Jesus, I trust in you! Jezu, ufam tobie!
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Divine Mercy...
