„Purum Esse” znaczy miłosierdzie. Metafizyka i Objawienie w ks. Michała Sopoćki przepowiadaniu Bożego Miłosierdzia

Abstract

The Apostle of Divine Mercy, Blessed Fr. Michał Sopoćko conveyed in his writings a unique synthesis of metaphysics and theological exegesis of the Biblical revelation of God as infinitely merciful. In fact, Aquinas's notion of God as the pure, absolutely autonomous Being, Purum Esse Subsistens, was approached by him as a key to the understanding of both the Old Testatament and the revelation of God in Christ. Thus his main concern turned out to be the recognition of “what is”, i.e. of being, behind the meanings conveyed in the Holy Scriptures. The very concern of his most characteristic publications such as Miłosierdzie Boga w dziełach Jego (God's Mercy in His Acts) and Poznajmy Boga w Jego Miłosierdziu (We Know God in His Mercy) is, therefore, a relationship of human faith to the Divine Being, for Mercy as the highest attribute of God is at the same time the absolute Act of giving good and even giving oneself to finite entities wounded by conseqences of the original sin, according to Aquinas's formulat that “God's love infuses and creates good in things created” (S. T. II q. 20, a. 2). In a surprising way this formula finds its symbolic illustration in the theology of the icon of Jesus the Merciful.