To Console the Heart of the Merciful Savior

“More Brilliant than the Sun," a weekly series by Robert Stackpole, STD, Director of the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy 

The series so far:
PART 1: The Plan of the Heart of Jesus to Drive Back the World's Darkness
PART 2:  What Do We Really Mean By “The Heart of Jesus”?
PART 3:  Devotion to the Heart of Jesus and its Roots in Holy Scripture
PART 4: The Heart of the Savior in the New Testament
PART 5:  The Heart of Jesus Manifest in His Tender Affections and Compassionate Love
PART 6:  The Heart of Jesus in the Garden and on the Cross
PART 7:  From Easter Onward: The Heart of Jesus Lives in His Church
PART 8:  The Flowering of Love for the Heart of Jesus in the Middle Ages
PART 9:  Saint Gertrude the Great on Bringing Comfort and Joy to the Heavenly Christ
PART 10:  Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque and Reparation to the Sacred Heart
PART 11:  On Consoling the Heart of Jesus
PART 12:  Saints and Servants of Consoling Reparation to the Heart of Jesus
PART 13:  The Twelve Promises — and the Great Promise — of the Sacred Heart 
PART 14:  Holiness from the Heart of Jesus: St. Charles De Foucauld
PART 15:  Holiness from the Heart of Jesus: Blessed Dina Bélanger
PART 16:  The Social Reign of the Sacred Heart
PART 17:  The Reign of the Heart of Jesus in Families
PART 18:  Jesus Unveils the Great Mercy of His Heart
PART 19:  Popes, Saints, and Visionaries on the Merciful Heart of Jesus

PART 20: To Console the Heart of the Merciful Savior

In St. Faustina’s writings about and devotion to the Merciful Heart of Jesus, we find the notion of giving delight, comfort, and solace to His Heart. Sometimes she sought to console Him in His sorrowful Passion; at other times she sought to relieve His anguish over the sins of humanity, without explicitly indicating whether this consolation is received by Him just in Heaven now, or also “retroactively,” long ago (see Episode 11 in this web series for a theological explanation of the “retroactive” consoling of the Sacred Heart).

Sometimes she gave Him solace by works of mercy and compassion, sometimes by intercessory prayer for the conversion of sinners, and other times just by her interior acts of trust in His merciful providence. In short, to bring delight, relief, and comfort to the Heart of her Saviour, in His tender affectivity for her and for all people, is one of the principle themes of her Diary; she often held it to be a special request to her from the Lord Jesus Himself.

Examples of the theme of consoling the Heart of Jesus abound in St. Faustina’s Diary. For example, on the day when she offered herself, with all her sufferings and works of piety, as an oblation to God for souls that do not trust in His Mercy, she heard Jesus ratify her offering with the words, “I am giving you a share in the redemption of mankind. You are solace in my dying hour” (Diary, 310).

Saint Faustina once heard Jesus say to her:

My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls and especially for poor sinners. ... I desire to bestow my graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them. You, at least, come to Me as often as possible and take these graces which they do not want to accept. In this way you will console My Heart. Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! My Heart drinks only of the ingratitude and forgetfulness of souls living in the world. They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces (Diary, 367).

Compassion
One time, St. Faustina had a remarkably vivid vision of the scourging of the Lord Jesus, which filled her heart with compassion. Then Jesus said to her: “I see the sincere pain of your heart, which brought solace to My Heart” (Diary, 445).

Similarly, on Good Friday, 1937, Jesus said to her, “My host, you are refreshment for my tormented heart.” Faustina then wrote: “He brought me into such close intimacy with Himself that my heart was espoused to His Heart. The fire of my created love was joined to the ardour of His eternal love.” Then she heard Jesus speak His seven last words from the Cross, followed by the words: “Beloved daughter of My Heart, you are my solace amidst terrible torments” (Diary, 398-399).

Saint Faustina also learned that nothing brings solace to the Heart of Christ more than souls who trust in Him and receive His mercy. That is one reason why Jesus encouraged Faustina to devote her whole life to the spread of the message of Divine Mercy, and the conversion of sinners. Jesus said to her:

My daughter, do not tire of proclaiming My mercy. In this way you will refresh this Heart of Mine, which burns with a flame of pity for sinners. ... The loss of each soul plunges Me into mortal sadness. You always console Me when you pray for sinners (Diary, 1521 and 1397).

Consolation
The theme of consolation stands out most prominently in the popular “Novena to the Divine Mercy.” The Lord requested Sr. Faustina to make this special novena before the Feast of Mercy, from Good Friday through the Saturday after Easter. She was to bring to His Heart a different group of souls each day, immersing them in the ocean of His Mercy, and begging the Father, on the basis of Christ’s Passion, for graces of conversion and sanctification (Diary, 1209).

Several of the daily novena intentions dictated by the Lord clearly express the reality of giving retroactive consolation to Christ’s Heart during His Agony and Passion (e.g., the second, third, fourth and sixth days). Others speak of consoling His Heart in His Mystical Body, the Church (e.g., the fifth), or simply of His sorrows from His prevision of the sins of future generations (e.g., the ninth). As we have already seen, Christ spoke to her numerous times, apart from this novena, about His Merciful Heart that now in Heaven “burns with a flame of pity for sinners” (Diary, 1521).

These daily intentions for the novena amplify what we find expressed in the writings of St. Faustina more generally: that we can console the Heart of Jesus not only by acts of reparation before the tabernacle (for example, by keeping a Holy Hour) and not only by acts performed with the explicit intention of consoling Him in the Garden and on the Cross. Rather, Jesus was consoled by His prevision of all the acts of faith and love that are marked by His grace, including intercession for the conversion of sinners (e.g., on the first day of the novena); the devotion and faithfulness of all Christians (the second and third day); the conversion of pagans, heretics, and schismatics (the fourth and fifth day); and the humility of souls (the sixth day).

If we may take the other daily novena intentions as implying the consolation of Christ, then Christ is also given solace by those who venerate, glorify, and propagate His mercy (the seventh day); by the performance of the works of mercy (the seventh day); by prayers and indulgences offered for the relief of the souls in purgatory (the eighth day); and by the rekindling of the fervor of lukewarm souls (the ninth day). In short, just as in the writings of Ven. Fr. Dehon, St. Charles de Foucauld, the Servants of God Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey and Sr. Josefa Menendez, and Bl. Dina Belanger, in St. Faustina we have broken through the confines of the notion of consolation as limited to acts of piety before the tabernacle. According to St. Faustina, all of our authentic acts of faith and love, in the Holy Spirit, would have been foreseen by Christ during His Agony and Passion, and thereby brought Him solace.

Solace
In the novena intention for the third day, Christ speaks to her of how the devotion and faithfulness of souls brought Him a mere “drop” of consolation in the midst of the “ocean of bitterness” of His Agony and Passion. Similarly, Pope Pius XI had written in his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor (On Reparation To The Sacred Heart, 1928), section 7, that our acts of reparation “for all our poverty may offer Him some little solace.” Clearly, the Catholic notion of “retroactive consolation” does not cancel out the Agony in the Garden or the sorrows of the Passion.

When in His human soul at that time Christ Jesus foresaw our response of authentic faith and love to His great sacrifice of love on the Cross — a response that would be made only by a relatively small number of souls down through the ages — then this brought Him a mere “drop” of comfort, just enough to strengthen Him, and enable Him to carry on and complete His redemptive sacrifice.

Finally, as hinted in the novena, but made more explicit throughout her Diary, our Lord taught St. Faustina that, during His Agony and Passion, Jesus foresaw our willingness to receive His mercy, and all the graces He longs to shower upon us, this is what most consoled and comforted Him long ago, and fills His Heart with joy in Heaven now. This is a point of some importance, because the notion of consoling the Heart of Jesus sometimes has been presented in a way that makes our Lord seem overly effeminate, as if filled with self-pity.

In a way similar to Sr. Josefa Menendez, what St. Faustina clarifies for us is that Christ sorrowed in the Garden and on the Cross, not out of unrequited love as such, but because He foresaw that by refusing to receive and accept His merciful love, souls were thereby harming themselves. The Lord Jesus sorrowed for our sake — for what we were missing — not primarily for His own sake. Indeed, in a sense, in Heaven He still grieves for those on the road to spiritual self-destruction:

The flames of mercy are burning Me. I desire to pour them out upon human souls. Oh, what pain they cause Me when they do not want to accept them! ... How painfully distrust of My goodness wounds Me! ...

The graces of My Mercy are drawn by the means of one vessel only, and that is — trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive. Souls that trust boundlessly are a great comfort to Me, because I pour all the treasures of my graces into them. I rejoice that they ask for much, because it is My desire to give much, very much. On the other hand, I am sad when souls ask for little, when they narrow their hearts (Diary, 1074-1076, 1578). [See also part 9 in this web series for a full explanation of what it means to say we can “console” the glorified Heart of Jesus in Heaven]

In short, St. Faustina shows us that the desire of our Lord Jesus Christ for consolation is actually an expression of His selfless, self-giving love. What caused Him sorrow, through His prevision of us, was simply our stubborn refusal to receive all the mercy and grace He longed to shower upon us. The best way we can console Him, therefore, both retroactively and in the present, is to receive and cooperate with what He died to obtain for us and for all: namely, the graces from the Holy Spirit of conversion, sanctification, and eternal salvation.

This series continues next week with Part 21: "Trust Completely in Divine Mercy, and Be Merciful to Others."
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