Jezu, ufam tobie - Jesus, I trust in you

This weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday as Jesus wanted the Second Sunday of Easter to be instituted in his conversations with St. Faustina.  Bl. John Paul II instituted this feast at St. Faustina's canonization on April 30, 2000.  JPII's life was wrapped in Divine Mercy from his childhood to the very moment he died.  St. Faustina was also from Poland and he would often pray at her tomb.  He had great regard for the message of Divine Mercy and put the message into practice, even to the point of offering forgiveness to his would-be assassin, Mahmet Ali Agca, in a Roman prison cell.  And as if to continue to encourage us to place all our trust in the merciful heart of Jesus, he died on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, April 2, 2005. 

The message of Jesus spoken to St. Faustina and confirmed throughout the world by John Paul II is to trust in the mercy of Christ as our greatest hope.  God will not refuse the most hardened sinner if he comes to Him with trust in his great mercy.  Jesus said to St. Faustina: "I desire trust from my creatures.  Encourage souls to place great trust in My fathomless mercy.  Let the weak, sinful soul have no fear to approach Me, for even if it had more sins than there are grains of sand in the world, all would be drowned in the unmeasurable depths of My mercy." So in John Paul and Faustina's native language we together say with them: "Jezu, ufam tobie!" "Jesus, I trust in You!"

Excerpts from John Paul II's homily at the canonization of St. Faustina:

...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.

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!

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.

"Jesus, I trust in you"... This simple act of abandonment to Jesus dispels the thickest clouds and lets a ray of light penetrate every life.

Read the full text here.