Divine Mercy and the Fruits of the Resurrection
In the image of the Divine Mercy, we see a resurrected Jesus making a sign of blessing with His right hand, as if saying: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid”.
The marks left by the nails of the crucifixion on His hands and feet are clearly visible. There is no doubt that we are looking at Jesus Christ after His resurrection. Jesus is gently touching His heart with His left hand, while beams of light radiate from His heart towards us.
Jesus blesses us, and this blessing carries His grace, streaming endlessly and abundantly from a heart that was pierced for the sole reason of emptying itself on our souls.
Through the Ten Commandments, we are instructed to avoid lies, cheating, disrespect, lust, contempt for life, and putting earthly matters above love of God and love of neighbor. In the Beatitudes, we are taught to pursue positive attitudes like purity of heart, justice, kindness, generosity, peace, and mercy, while still accepting that, in the journey of life, we will encounter mourning, disappointment, and persecution. If lived through Christ’s guidelines, an attitude of peace in the face of these all-too-common human experiences will bring God's blessings into our lives.
As the Divine Mercy, Jesus is a witness to the fruits of his resurrection: an eternally living heart that radiates grace and love. As Jesus Himself explained to St. Faustina, “The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the water that makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls ... These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when my agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross.”
The red light that signifies Christ’s blood bathes and purifies everything in us that produces sin and failure. The white beams tell of the grace that comes from His love for us, illuminating and amplifying everything that is good in us.
St. John Paul II spoke about this mystery during a homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2001: “Today the Lord also shows us His glorious wounds, and His Heart, an inexhaustible source of truth, of love, and forgiveness.”
In many Catholic churches around the world, it is possible to gaze at an image of the Divine Mercy while standing in front of a crucifix. The crucifix symbolizes how Jesus took upon himself all the sins of mankind through unfathomable suffering, while the Divine Mercy joyfully shows us exactly what Jesus achieved for us in return for His crucifixion and death: peace, the grace to defeat sin and failure, and the light of righteousness which turns our misery into virtue. The Divine Mercy is the continuation of the greatest story ever told.
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