By Marc Massery
Turn to any page of the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska and you find spiritual gems. Like this one:
Truly, Jesus, I become frightened when I look at my own misery, but at the same time I am reassured by Your unfathomable mercy, which exceeds my misery by the measure of all eternity. This disposition of soul clothes me in Your power. O joy that flows from the knowledge of one’s self! (66)
There’s an ancient Greek maxim that goes, “Knowledge of self is the beginning of wisdom.” Saint Faustina knew two things about herself — that she was miserable and that God was merciful to her.
Misery
Throughout her Diary, St. Faustina is constantly talking about her misery. Many times she even says, “I am misery itself.”
Now, St. Faustina didn’t just have a rough go of things or a low opinion of herself. She was aware of a profound spiritual truth — that we were created good in God’s image and likeness, but that we fell from grace and are in desperate need of salvation. This separation from God is misery.
Some might assume knowledge of our own misery to be a bad thing. After all, who wants to be miserable? But unless we acknowledge our misery, we won’t find the Gospel message useful.
Mercy
And that Gospel message is this: God’s mercy “exceeds [our] misery by the measure of all eternity.” Saint Faustina knew this better than anyone.
God’s mercy changes everything. When God’s mercy touches our misery, we begin to understand just how great His mercy actually is. The better we understand our misery, the more He can fill us up with His mercy.
So how, like St. Faustina, do we come to a better knowledge of our misery and God’s mercy toward us? Through prayer, through practicing works of mercy, through reception of Holy Communion, and through regular Confession. Knowledge of self and knowledge of the Lord’s mercy, after all, are graces that the Lord wants to give us. Ironically, the closer we get to God, the more we will be aware of our own misery. But not to worry — the more we realize our misery, the more we can rely on God’s mercy.
The Lord can bring us to a knowledge of His mercy and our misery in other ways, too. When we sin, when we get sick, when we’re stressed out, when someone dear to us dies — the Lord can use these circumstances to remind us of just how weak and helpless we truly are.
In hard times like these, we always have a choice. We can either try to escape our misery by filling ourselves up with the things of the world. Or we can turn ourselves over to the mercy of God and let Him be our strength. The more we choose the latter, the more we will come to see what St. Faustina knew to be true — that His mercy has no limits.
Let us pray through the intercession of St. Faustina that God will give us knowledge of our own misery, but only so that He can envelop us with His mercy.
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