Above all, however, with these words of the Act of Entrustment, the Holy Father personally fulfilled the task which, in the Encyclical Dives in Misericordia published in 1980, he defined as a fundamental right and at the same time as the greatest duty of the Church. In fact, he wrote: “At no time and in no historical period-especially at a moment as critical as our own-can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it. Precisely this is the fundamental right and duty of the Church in Christ Jesus, her right and duty towards God and towards humanity. The more the human conscience succumbs to secularization, loses its sense of the very meaning of the word “mercy,” moves away from God and distances itself from the mystery of mercy, the more the Church has the right and the duty to appeal to the God of mercy “with loud cries.” These “loud cries” should be the mark of the Church of our times, cries uttered to God to implore His mercy, the certain manifestation of which she professes and proclaims as having already come in Jesus crucified and risen, that is, in the Paschal Mystery. It is this mystery which bears within itself the most complete revelation of mercy, that is, of that love which is more powerful than death, more powerful than sin and every evil, the love which lifts man up when he falls into the abyss and frees him from the greatest threats.” (DiM, 15)
This mercy, in the view of John Paul II, thus appears as a kind of love that wants to save another person from the manifold physical and spiritual dangers that threaten him, which helps him, that carries him and liberates him – and which, penetrating his heart and mind, allows him to achieve victory over the evil that threatens him or directly affects him. It is precisely this love that we are to implore from God, who is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8b).
On August 17, 2002, John Paul II said: Today, therefore, in this Shine, I wish solemnly to entrust the world to Divine Mercy. I do so with the burning desire that the message of God’s merciful love, proclaimed here through Saint Faustina, may be made known to all the peoples of the earth and fill their hearts with hope. May this message radiate from this place to our beloved homeland and throughout the world. Let us now pray together the Papal Act of Entrustment:
THE ACT OF ENTRUSTING THE WORLD TO GOD’S MERCY.
God, merciful Father,
in your Son, Jesus Christ, you have revealed your love
and poured it out upon us in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
We entrust to you today the destiny of the world and of every man and woman.
Bend down to us sinners,
heal our weakness,
conquer all evil,
and grant that all the peoples of the earth
may experience your mercy.
In You, the Triune God,
may they ever find the source of hope.
Eternal Father,
by the Passion and Resurrection of your Son,
have mercy on us and upon the whole world!
Amen.
“May the binding promise of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled: from here there must go forth “the spark which will prepare the world for his final coming” (cf. Diary, 1732). This spark needs to be lighted by the grace of God. This fire of mercy needs to be passed on to the world. In the mercy of God the world will find peace and mankind will find happiness! I entrust this task to you, dear Brothers and Sisters, to the Church in Kraków and Poland, and to all the votaries of Divine Mercy who will come here from Poland and from throughout the world. May you be witnesses to mercy! – may these words of St. John Paul II delivered at the end of the homily on August 17, 2002, just before entrusting the world to Divine Mercy, be a signpost of the Pope of Mercy for all Worshippers of Divine Mercy.
Agata Wiszniewski
