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Importance of the Faustina Film

The mission of the film.

In trying to understand the mission of this project, that is, what purpose the Lord would have in desiring a film on the life of St. Faustina, the following text has evolved. Please forgive the lengthiness of this text.

The mission of the film, and of Faustina's diary, are one. According to Fr. Ignacy Rozycki, the theologian who analyzed Faustina’s writings for the Vatican, "the purpose of the diary is to reveal to us the mercy of God through the soul of St. Faustina". The highest mission of the film would be the same - to give mankind confidence to approach God without fear and with trust and confidence in His love and mercy towards them, no matter how distant from God the person may be (or feel to be) when the message finds them. The film becomes, like the diary, a vehicle through which we come to see God and learn about His mercy, which towards mankind, is His greatest attribute.

This will be accomplished through the accurate and dramatic portrayal of St. Faustina and the key scenes in her life, revealing the intimate relationship she had with the Lord. The words of Jesus in Diary 1693 confirm this, and accurately sum up the mission of the film: Jesus said, “Secretary of My most profound mystery, know that yours is an exclusive intimacy with Me. Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me. I therefore want you to devote all your free moments to writing…”

We feel that the best way to serve the people who will see this film, is to be faithful to diary 1693. Greater than the heavenly visitations Faustina experienced, greater than her numerous gifts and maturity, greater than what she accomplished in her lifetime, is the fact that God delivered a message to all the world through her – to a world that is in great need of God's mercy, a world full of pain unimaginable.

What is the message?

The message is, that God is not an angry and vindictive God waiting to catch us in sin so He can punish us. Rather, His mercy is so great we cannot even imagine it - it’s “unfathomable”. From this message we learn that no matter how wicked we have been in our lives, we can trust in this mercy. As in the diary, this film must reveal the God we see so beautifully in the life of St. Faustina. In her life we see a soul filled to capacity with all the yearnings of her heart satisfied. God reveals Himself in His relationship with Faustina. In her life, God stops for a time being a “hidden God”. He gave Faustina a mission. He commanded her to write about Him and her own life, so that He could reveal Himself to us as well. A faithful depiction of her life, her experiences with the Lord, and key messages He spoke to her and she wrote about Him, will reveal God to the world.

People have lost faith and hope in God; the life of Faustina makes God come alive for them and brings to life the entire supernatural world which Faustina in her simplicity and honesty, makes natural and familiar to us. Faustina writes in diary 459, "Throughout that entire meditation I saw the Lord Jesus on the altar, in a white garment, His hand holding the notebook in which I write these things. Throughout the entire meditation Jesus kept turning the pages of the notebook and remained silent; however, my heart could not bear the fire that was enkindled in my soul. Despite the great effort of my will to take control of myself and not let others see what was going on in my soul, toward the end of the meditation I felt that I was completely beyond my own control. Then Jesus said to me, "You have not written everything in the notebook about My goodness towards humankind; I desire that you omit nothing; I desire that your heart be firmly grounded in total peace."

We see in 459 above that Jesus was greatly concerned that we come to know all about His goodness toward us. It is His desire that we understand how good God is. With this knowledge we will be secure in approaching Him as the source of all our needs, physical, spiritual, emotional, mental… like a newborn baby at its Mother’s breast so is a soul who understands the goodness of God. This is the peace God wants to ground us in – the whole world, especially the suffering and oppressed. This is the refuge from the terrors of the world today, the greatest terror being separation from God by sin. Faustina experienced this in her dark night (diary 98), the tortures of the damned who have said no to God, even after He approached in their final moments with one more chance (diary 1698).

A heroic message for today!

In reading the diary we are seeing a manifestation of God to mankind relevant to our present time. Through it we come to know "the true face of God, and of our neighbor", (Pope John Paul II, canonization homily, St. Faustina, Rome, 2000). This is why the mission of the film and of the diary is the same – the film, like the diary, must manifest the merciful God to the world through the soul of Faustina, which was painfully purified during her life.

The manifestation of the true face of our neighbor comes when we see the weaknesses of Faustina, her struggles, her fears, her doubts, and her misery. What we are seeing is the human face of someone struggling with a fallen human nature trying to live in the constant call to grow in the divine nature. We see someone who had great desires to do the will of God but who experienced, by divine providence, a great weakness and lack, so that in great humility the power of God fulfills this mission through her cooperation. The temptations she endured from her weaknesses and from the devil; the persecutions and misunderstandings she endured from her confessors, superiors and fellow sisters, all formed Faustina in the perfection of trust she was called to live herself, and then speak about. The true face of Faustina is our face too; everyone is called to union with God and her life reveals the pattern, while God’s action in her life reveals His pattern for us as well. Faustina had to cooperate with the action of God raising her to share His own divine nature.

There are plenty of examples when, moving strongly against her humanity which did not like suffering and self-denial, her will acquiesced to climb the next step of the ladder and her spirit rejoiced in the victory over self. Everyone who sees the film should know they are called to this as well. We are really not bystanders or observers of this life; we are this life. This life is not acting; this life is the reality between God and man. This is why this movie is unprecedented.

Faustina was at the same time both messenger and message; the purification of her soul through her many and varied sufferings made her soul like a crystal through which the image of God was able to be manifest. And so we see the reason for her great sufferings. So high and lofty a mission required a perfectly clear aperture though which God could focus and ‘write’ His image on her soul, so that she could be of benefit to the world – a truly holy soul worthy of our imitation. Pride, selfishness, self-will, mistrust of God, lack of charity towards those around her… all this had to be burned away through suffering. False concepts of God had to be removed through painful ‘unknowing’ as she was being given heavenly illumination and divine sight. Faith, hope and love had to be perfected through trials of darkness, near despair and abandonment in order for her to “see” God and neighbor on the much higher level of ‘infused contemplation’, far above the senses, feelings and emotions of her early years when religion was a comfort to her and the first day in the convent felt like she had “entered heaven”. From that day on, her life was a constant dying to self, bewildering at first to herself and others, but as she grew in maturity and understanding of the ways of God, her sufferings became her greatest joy.

The voluntary assimilation into Christ and partaking in His cross and redemptive sufferings for souls had to be taught Faustina in the school of Christ’s Passion. For those looking on, it seems like a lot of unnecessary and even self-inflicted suffering, but from the results and fruits which revealed themselves towards the end of her life, we learn in retrospect that far from being punished by God as she once felt, the work of God in Faustina’s soul had sublime goals to which she perseveringly aspired as she cooperated with the voice of God within her from her youth until her death, and the voice of God represented to her from her superiors who she gave utmost obedience to as the signified will of God, drawing her ever deeper into the secret place where God dwelt in her heart.

Faustina's spiritual gifts

Many souls were saved and many more would be by virtue of this work, to which God gave her a frightfully grave responsibility for. She could penetrate the hearts and thoughts of others in order to help them in their relation with God. She experienced ecstasies and heavenly rewards even here on earth because she gave her all to God, withholding nothing for herself. God revealed Himself as a good and caring Father to Faustina, wise beyond our understanding as He directed her along a very steep, very painful, and very dangerous path because her mission to serve the Church and humanity was exceedingly high. During it all, even during her dark night, He never let her loose her footing, never gave her too much to bear, and left her alone only long enough to accomplish the work of her sanctification, then with sublime action comforted her soul.

If we can direct all things in the film to revealing this loving Director of her soul by the way He worked with her, we will have been faithful to diary verse 1693. ‘Seeing’ God, what He is really like, and how He thinks, is revealed clearly in Faustina’s life. Coming to ‘see’ God through her life will give people the courage to approach Him. Souls will long for Him because they will see how good God is and the benefits to the spirit a union with God brings. They will want what Faustina had – an intimate spiritual relationship and true mystical experience with Him, and a security which goes way beyond anything this world can offer, as manifested in Faustina’s life.

Urgency of this message

Is there urgency to this message, or is it only a ‘sweet love letter’ from God to humankind? As we dig deeper, we begin to see that there is indeed urgency to this message; there is a reason for the time and place and tone of this message. Pre-World War II history figures prominently in many of the revelations to Faustina. Messages of God’s displeasure with Poland due to “great sinfulness” and consequences of national disasters are a recurrent theme in her diary. Many times she would be asked by God and the Virgin Mary to pray for “her beloved Poland”. She also suffered for Russia, that “country that has banished God from its borders”. The prediction that divine justice would destroy the most beautiful city in Poland (Warsaw) in the same way as Sodom and Gomorrah, was fulfilled in the Nazi’s incendiary bombs which “rained fire from heaven”, and 2 years to the day after sister had a vision of Poland’s demise the Nazi’s invaded Poland.

During her return from Ostra Brama and the first public display of the Image, the demons attacked Faustina, beat her physically and threw her into the mud, promising that soon they would “throw down” her country in the same way. And yet Poland is represented as a microcosm of the world, and what took place in Poland is a sign for the rest of the world if the world will not avail itself of God’s mercy. It is only in the shadow of the rays of mercy that evil cannot triumph, so a worldwide group of souls begging and living the mercy of God will free it from evil, just as Faustina’s prayers of the Chaplet postponed great evils that were to fall on Poland until after her death. According to Faustina, the world is “running riot in its wickedness” (diary 1619) and after being given knowledge of the sins of the world, she could not believe God would allow humanity to continue to exist: I fainted from fright, and even though I know the depth of God’s mercy, I was surprised that God allows humanity to exist. And the Lord gave me to know who it is that upholds the existence of mankind: it is the chosen souls (diary 926). The chosen souls are our audience! They are also all those suffering and oppressed in the world. In response, He told Faustina He is sending her not like a prophet of old wielding thunderbolts, but “with His mercy to the people of the whole world” to heal it by “pressing it to His Merciful Heart” (diary 1588).

This is the preparation for His final coming - before the time of justice He is sending a time of mercy. It’s a time when we’re supposed to get ready. He said this message (His mercy) would be a preparation and a sign of His final coming, and that the “day of His justice is near” (diary 965). If people did not turn to His mercy they would have to pass through the door of His justice (diary 1146). He said that His mercy would be mankind’s “last hope for salvation” (diary 998, 965) and that “mankind would not have peace until it turned with trust to His mercy” (diary 300). He gave many means of preparation for this day of Justice; but what He stressed most was that all mankind show mercy towards one another. Just like in the Gospels.

Power of the film

God has intervened and spoken to us through this unlikely and uneducated nun. The Church has ratified her message and her life by canonizing her after intense scrutiny. Given the words of “preparation” above, is this just entertainment or is it something more? Is there soon to be a “day of justice”? After living through an honest and real depiction of Faustina’s life, can anyone else have a similar life? Millions of hearts have been stirred up reading her diary… can this film be done in such a way that people’s hearts are also stirred up to seek after God and live a life of heroic proportions as they just saw Faustina do? We want people to want what they just saw – a fountain of living water for their parched souls in the desert of this world. We want people to believe what they just saw because they believe in Faustina. We want them to know they can join Faustina in her work by being one of those “chosen souls who uphold the world”; to be a part of the congregation Faustina was to found and now does exists with ‘spiritual’ structure – a congregation without vows or monastery walls… the monastery of the world where ordinary people begin to live interior lives of supernatural grace and mercy towards each other as she wanted so emphatically.

This film will stir up love in the hearts of those who see it because there will be power in it. Not only will there be power because it is a true and powerful story of a heroic human being, but because the very power of God will be with it. Through her life they will recognize innately the God who created them. If this message was really given by Christ… if people have been really cured, visited by Faustina since her death, and all predictions have come true – what do we make of it? Is this really the preparation for the final coming? How should people understand it? What should they do? The answer is here – as it appeared to Faustina without invention or embellishment. She’s already lived through it. Her entire spiritual life is a pattern for every soul, not to the same degree or circumstance, but the essence is always similar. Everyone will find answers in her life. The vision of the Merciful Christ appearing with the rays of mercy extending out to the whole world (not just Catholics) – The Divine Mercy – this is, in Christ’s own words, “the sign for the end times” (diary 848). This is what we are dealing with. It is to be something very significant in the history of the world.

Trust, not despair

In diary 1541, Jesus tells Faustina, "Write this for the benefit of distressed souls; when a soul sees and realizes the gravity of it sins, when the whole abyss of the misery into which it immersed itself is displayed before its eyes, let it not despair, but with trust let it throw itself into the arms of My mercy, as a child into the arms of its beloved mother."

This message is another important theme for the film. As the world becomes ever darker and more violent, as all hope seems to vanish and we see ourselves as God sees us, we must not despair but turn to this mercy. If people hear this they will be ready, they will know what to do – to turn to God’s mercy and not give up on themselves in spite of seeing their sinfulness. If for the world and sinners there is mercy and a message of hope, for the leaders of the Church there is sternness and admonition. Our Lord told Faustina that while there are still many consecrated souls who love Him deeply, love is dead in many convents, churches, and souls of religious.

He told Faustina He would destroy convents and churches if they don’t return to their first love, and look at what’s happening in the Church! In a vision of the scourging of Christ, after the Roman soldiers, Faustina is shown priests, bishops, prelates, and lay persons all taking the whip and hitting Our Lord. These caused more suffering to the Lord because of the betrayal of those supposed to be His friends. (Diary 1702). We can see so much honesty in this message. It’s not Catholic propaganda – it’s the truth. The world needs to see this vision, so they can trust the Lord and understand the Church. We cannot sweep under the carpet the fact that many in the Church cause her harm, but they are not representative of what the Church is. 

Finally, this revelation of God to man comes loaded with profound glimpses of eternal wisdom and truth. It actually reveals God’s thoughts and lets us see things from His point of view. The highest wisdom is strewn about the diary like diamonds for us to share with the world. They are the fruits of Faustina’s intense union with God and her ‘exclusive intimacy’ with Him, and many unlock the hidden mysteries of life we all ponder within. From time to time, as she did, we will share them with the audience; like a sip from a refreshing fountain of clear cool water, they will want to come back to this well time and time again to drink. May God put His hand on this project, work through us, and give us a film that does all this document sets forth and more.

© 2008 Jim Mattingly, Mercy Film, Inc.

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