“Today is the happiest day of my life.”

So Pope St. John Paul II told Dr. Valentin Fuster, who had investigated the canonization miracle for St. Faustina. It happened 25 years ago during the banquet following the canonization ceremony on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 30, 2000.

It was little surprise from the man who became known as the Divine Mercy Pope. He surely was filled with joy that day. Earlier, during his homily at her canonization, he said, “Today my joy is truly great in presenting the life and witness of Sister Faustina Kowalska to the whole Church as a gift of God for our time.” He called her “the great apostle of Divine Mercy.”

He also made a major announcement during the homily. “It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church will be called ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’”

Proclaiming Divine Mercy Sunday an official celebration for the universal Church surely added to the happiness of John Paul II.

Years in the Works

It was little surprise because John Paul II, often known as the Mercy Pope, constantly reminded everyone of God’s mercy. Three years before the canonization, in 1997 while on his visit to Poland — a saint-in-the-making himself — he spoke at the Shrine of Divine Mercy, saying:

The Message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me … which I took with me to the See of Peter and which in a sense forms the image of this Pontificate. I give thanks to Divine Providence that I have been enabled to contribute personally to the fulfillment of Christ's will, through the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy. Here, near the relics of Blessed Faustina Kowalska, I give thanks also for the gift of her beatification. I pray unceasingly that God will have ‘mercy on us and the whole world.’

Even before he became the Holy Father, the message of Divine Mercy and St. Faustina was close to him. As Archbishop Karol Wojtyła of Krakow, he reinstituted an investigation of the Diary that had been shelved because of a faulty translation from Polish to Italian. After several years of vigorous examination and proper translation through his efforts, the Vatican approved it. Less than a year later, Cardinal Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II.

Then Divine Mercy became the central theme of his 1980 encyclical Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy).

In it, he proclaimed:

Mercy in itself, as a perfection of the infinite God, is also infinite. Also infinite therefore and inexhaustible is the Father's readiness to receive the prodigal children who return to His home. Infinite are the readiness and power of forgiveness which flow continually from the marvelous value of the sacrifice of the Son. No human sin can prevail over this power or even limit it. On the part of man, only a lack of good will can limit it, a lack of readiness to be converted and to repent — in other words, persistence in obstinacy, opposing grace and truth, especially in the face of the witness of the cross and resurrection of Christ.

Being the Marian pope that he was, John Paul II also emphasized:

Mary, then, is the one who has the deepest knowledge of the mystery of God's mercy. She knows its price, she knows how great it is. In this sense, we call her the Mother of mercy: our Lady of mercy, or Mother of divine mercy.

A year later in November 1981, at the Sanctuary of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy, he declared:

A year ago I published the encyclical Dives in Misericordia. … I wish to reconfirm, in a way, the message of that encyclical. I wish to read it again and deliver it again. Right from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter's See in Rome, I considered this message my special task. Providence has assigned it to me in the present situation of man, the Church, and the world. It could be said that precisely this situation assigned that message to me as my task before God.

John Paul II continued that task, as he called it, and never let chance go by to remind people of God’s love and Divine Mercy.

Even After the Declaration

The year after Faustina’s canonization and announcement about Divine Mercy Sunday, on the following Divine Mercy Sunday, April 22, 2001, John Paul II reminded everyone:

This miracle of mercy has radically changed humanity's destiny. It is a miracle in which is unfolded the fullness of the love of the Father who, for our redemption, does not even draw back before the sacrifice of his Only-begotten Son.

He continued:

The Cross, even after the Resurrection of the Son of God, speaks and never ceases to speak of God the Father, who is absolutely faithful to his eternal love for man. … Believing in this love means believing in mercy (Dives in Misericordia, no. 7).

“Let us thank the Lord for His love, which is stronger than death and sin,” he continued. “It is revealed and put into practice as mercy in our daily lives. … Is not loving God and loving one's neighbor and even one's ‘enemies,’ after Jesus’ example, the program of life of every baptized person and of the whole Church?”

Again reminding everyone of the path to mercy, he said:

Jesus, I trust in you. This prayer, dear to so many of the devout, clearly expresses the attitude with which we too would like to abandon ourselves trustfully in your hands, O Lord, our only Savior.

You are burning with the desire to be loved and those in tune with the sentiments of your heart learn how to build the new civilization of love. A simple act of abandonment is enough to overcome the barriers of darkness and sorrow, of doubt and desperation. The rays of your divine mercy restore hope, in a special way, to those who feel overwhelmed by the burden of sin.

Being the Marian pope, he called upon Our Lady’s aid: “Mary, Mother of Mercy, help us always to have this trust in your Son, our Redeemer.”

One Final Reminder

On April 2, 2005, John Paul II died on the Vigil of Divine Mercy. Yet he had one final reminder about Divine Mercy in his Regina Caeli message prepared for the Feast of Divine Mercy celebrated universally the next day, April 3.

Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, substitute of the Secretariat of State, proclaimed the message the Holy Father had prepared and instructed to be read.

The Mercy Pope’s final words reminded us:

As a gift to humanity, which sometimes seems bewildered and overwhelmed by the power of evil, selfishness and fear, the Risen Lord offers his love that pardons, reconciles and reopens hearts to love. It is a love that converts hearts and gives peace. How much the world needs to understand and accept Divine Mercy!

Lord, who reveal the Father's love by your death and Resurrection, we believe in you and confidently repeat to you today: ‘Jesus, I trust in you, have mercy upon us and upon the whole world.’

It must have felt like his happiest day all over again.