The Sacred Heart and the Divine Mercy: In Conflict or Continuity?

Fr. Manuel Flores, SJ
April 28, 2019

The only 2 Church approved apparitions of Jesus

While there are at least 17 church approved Marian apparitions, there only two church approved apparitions of Jesus: the Sacred Heart and the Divine Mercy.

Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French   Sister of the Visitation, received 40 revelations of the heart of Jesus between 1673 and 1675, including 4 major apparitions.

In 1931 Jesus appeared before Sr. Faustina Kowalska and requested an image be painted which portrayed His ineffable love and mercy for His children.

Three images of the relationship between the Sacred Heart and the Divine Mercy

IMAGE #1      God’s Love and the Bridge

Saint Catherine of Siena put it best back in the Middle Ages that God’s love always crosses a bridge of mercy to reach us. In other words, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is all love, but the form that love takes when it reaches out to human beings is merciful love.

IMAGE #2     The flower and the fruit

St. Faustina wrote in her diary: “the Love of God is the flower, and Mercy the fruit” (paragraph 949).

It is quite clear here that the Sacred Heart which is the love God is source of the Divine Mercy. There can be no fruit without first having a flower.

IMAGE #3     The Fountain and the flow

On one occasion, St. Faustina had a vision of the Heart of Jesus which confirmed for her the role of the Sacred Heart as the source of the Divine Mercy devotion. Sr Faustina wrote in her Diary:

“My mercy is greater than your sins and those of the entire world … I let My Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come then, with trust to draw graces from this fountain (paragraph 1485).

The emphasis of the Sacred Heart Devotion: THE SUFFERING UNREQUITED LOVE OF JESUS

• Emphasizes the suffering love of Jesus for us: tender, wounded, and unrequited love, asking for our response of love. This is why His Heart is shown as surmounted by a cross, pierced and crowned with thorns.
• Emphasizes honoring the person of Christ as best symbolized by His physical heart. The heart in the bible is understood as center of the person: of thinking, feeling deciding.
• We find in the the traditional images of the Sacred Heart, Jesus is calling us back to Himself: calling us to love Him back, calling us to make that response of love through REPARATION, in return for all His tender, affectionate, and wounded love for us.

The emphasis of the Divine Mercy Devotion: THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF THE RISEN JESUS

• Emphasizes the risen Christ graciously taking the initiative, and seeking us out in the darkness with the rays of His merciful love as He did to His apostles after His ressurection.
• The Image of The Divine Mercy, emphasizes not so much on the movement from us to Christ, but more from Christ to us. It emphasizes BENEDICTION or blessing. In this image Christ is shown walking toward the viewer, coming to find us; the rays of merciful love flowing from His Heart spread out to embrace the viewer, and His hand is raised with a blessing of peace even before we ask for it.

CONCLUSION: In summary, there is one Heart but 2 devotions with significantly different emphasis. St. Faustina Kowalska was herself devoted also to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and practiced the First Friday devotion. St John Paul himself was devoted to both the Sacred Heart and the Divine Mercy as we find with many Polish people today. According to saints, visionaries, and popes, we need to be devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, at the same time, to have a special devotion to the Divine Mercy that flows to us from His Heart.