A new full-length documentary film on the Divine Mercy is
now available for large or small screenings during the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
It has the long and intriguing title of: "The Original Image of Divine
Mercy: The Untold Story of An Unknown Masterpiece."
ALSO FOR DIVINE MERCY
NON-FANS
Now. If you, like me, are one of the .0001% of Catholics who
do not warm up to the Divine Mercy devotion, who are, perhaps, even nonplussed
by it: this film might be just what you need. I'm calling this documentary
"The Thinking Person's Guide to Divine Mercy." AND, if you do not
take a shine to most or all of the images of the Divine Mercy you have
encountered? That's because you probably have not encountered the original image. (Above.)
WHAT IS "THE
DIVINE MERCY" DEVOTION?
If you are one of the other .0001% of Catholics who have never
heard of the Divine Mercy devotion (non-Catholics are completely absolved), it
is simply this: Jesus appeared to a young Polish nun living in Lithuania in the
1930's (Sr. Faustina is now "St. Faustina") and revealed His desire
that an image of His Divine Mercy should be promulgated throughout the world,
with the words "Jesus, I trust in You" beneath. This "devotion"
is to be accompanied by prayers to/for divine mercy and acts of mercy. A book with the words of Jesus as recorded by
St. Faustina: "The Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in
My Soul" is available in many languages.
Countless numbers of people now pray "The Divine Mercy
chaplet" (prayed on regular rosary beads) and "The Divine Mercy
Novena." Prayers to the Divine Mercy are especially prayed every day at 3
pm, the "hour of mercy" when Christ died.
A HIRED BRUSH
Jesus told Sr. Faustina to paint an image exactly as he
appeared to her. She was no painter, so she and her spiritual director, Fr.
Michael Sopocko, enlisted the help of an artist, Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, who labored
to get the details just right (and of course, Sr. Faustina was never satisfied,
even with the final product, but she came to accept the fact that no artist
could ever fully capture Jesus the way she saw Him).
A few of the important details of the original image are the
face of Jesus looking down (Jesus said this was His gaze on us from the Cross),
and the hands raised in an particular way in blessing while white and red rays
(representing mercy) radiate forth from His unseen heart. The background is
blackness. It's utterly simple and uncluttered, what one sacred art expert in
the film calls: "A masterpiece of iconography. Face, hands, that's
it."
THE SUFFERING OF THE
CHURCH BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN
A highlight and constant of the film is the parallel story
of the fierce persecution of the Catholic Church in Lithuania under the Soviets
after World War II. Those of us old enough to remember the days of the former
U.S.S.R. heard plenty of stories as it was happening: the beginning of the fall
of the Soviet Union was 1989. The famous (infamous to the Communists)
"Hill of Crosses" is also briefly featured in the documentary. Most
poignant of all is the subdued pain in the faces and voices of the elderly
bishops and priests (some of whom did forced labor in Siberian work camps). The
story of the heroism of the persecuted Church under Soviet rule is a story yet
to be told (actually many, many stories to be told). The Church had to be
crushed because its doctrines were the polar opposite of atheistic Communism.
BUT ISN'T THE DIVINE
MERCY DEVOTION FROM POLAND?
So why have we thought the Divine Mercy devotion was from
Poland? Many Poles live in Lithuania, and there was even a Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth in the 18th century, under common rule. Sr. Faustina was Polish,
and under the Soviets, each country absorbed into the U.S.S.R still had strict
borders (though these borders were not shown on many world maps of the time)
that could not be easily traversed. Just as the image of the Divine Mercy began
to spread from Lithuania, World War II hit, and Poland became prominent in
furthering the devotion. However, Polish artists, one in particular, began
doing their own altered versions of the original image, and these became
associated as "the" image. There is a movement today toward restoring
the original image to prominence. After
being: forgotten, abandoned, ignored, secretly venerated, sold for a
bottle of vodka, kept in a priest's private residence, on vacation in Belarus
and heisted by some daring nuns, the original image is now enthroned above the
main altar of the Church of the Holy Spirit (where Fr. Sopocko once served) in
Vilnius, Lithuania.
CELEBS GALORE
The documentary unassumingly features Jim Gaffigan, Harry
Connick, Jr., Bishop Barron, three Cardinals, a slew of Bishops, priests, art
and church historians (lots of women here), and those who were witnesses to the
image's sojourn. These articulate folks and the entire film have a lot to say,
not just about this particular image, but the role of images in our Faith in
general. "Sacred icons are primarily mediums of grace." If you still
don't care for the portrayal of the original image "...the image is not
the object of our devotion anyway." Jesus said it's all about His grace
and mercy, not the particular color or beauty of the painting.
A warm, personal theology exudes from this entire project. If you've ever given up on theology as dry, aloof, clinical, hard, cold and abstract? This film will be a fragrant balm. This is serious, profound, lived, battle-scarred, Eastern European Christianity, people.
A warm, personal theology exudes from this entire project. If you've ever given up on theology as dry, aloof, clinical, hard, cold and abstract? This film will be a fragrant balm. This is serious, profound, lived, battle-scarred, Eastern European Christianity, people.
IMAGE OF THE IMAGE
This documentary is an image of the image, in a sense. How
are its production values? "The Original Image of Divine Mercy" is a
contemporarily contemplative film. Cooler-than-thou acoustic guitar, the vocals
of Mike Mangione and an Audrey Assad soundalike grace our ponderings. Natural
lighting floating in from a window. No boring sit-down interviews. A fondness
for handheld filming. A flowing fluidity to the camerawork . Most interviewees
stand in their own environment or an ambience of the original image. Mostly
mid-range shots and hardly any close-ups situate us in a "this is bigger
than all of us and involves all of us" frame of mind. There's a connectedness
with the surroundings, including the filmmakers who are very often in the
shots. It has an immediate, "you are there" feel which doesn't allow
us to be passive bystanders.
The camerawork can be raw, but with a purpose. The
interviews can be long, but not unedited. The filmmakers are letting people
have their say, the way they want to say it, clarifying here and there with a
translator: it's all captured because--like the very image of Divine
Mercy--it's not perfection we're after. After each segment of interviews, we
take a break and see the Divine Mercy image doing its thing around the world in
public places. We see the interviewees relaxing, preparing, meditating before
the image, interacting with the filmmakers in candid shots. At first I thought:
there's too many "behind the scenes," but then I realized these are
NOT behind the scenes at all. A sense of real life and not "show" is
communicated effectively.
Two pleasing devices: uniformly stylized paintings of the
interviewees , as well as stills of quotes from Sr. Faustina's Diary with a
Polish-accented female voiceover, tie the narrative together. Some misspellings
and sloppy punctuation in the subtitles (but not horrible)--will be corrected
in DVD release in November.
What the filmmakers have created is an artistic, oral/visual
historical document.
TAKE HEART
I really can't abide any of the images of the Divine Mercy
I've seen (unless they've superimposed the face of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from
Hales Corner, Wisconsin, on it, but then it also looks tacky), but this
original image is realistic, natural, normal, approachable, pleasing.
Take heart if you don't "get" the Divine Mercy
devotion. It took Sr. Faustina's own spiritual director time to comprehend it
(and at least one other prominent person in the film admits to the same). This
film concretizes the development of the devotion and the physical and spiritual
journey of the image itself, as it spread throughout the world. And, as an
interviewee sums up at the end: the journey isn't over.
For a reasonable licensing fee, screenings are being offered
throughout the Holy Year for parishes, schools, organizations and events
commemorating the Jubilee Year.
Proceeds from the licensing of this film will go to foster the
development of pilgrimage facilities for the Divine Mercy Shrine in Vilnius,
Lithuania – the permanent home of the Original Image of Divine Mercy,
For more info go to www.DivineMercyFilm.com
"The painting is
not necessary for mercy to reach the world. The Holy Spirit works anyway. But
this image is a gift, a gift from Jesus. And it's something that we can touch
in a very concrete way, and see, and not just have the concept from Holy
Scripture about the mercy of God, but also have a very concrete illustration.
This is a testimony to the will of Christ. And in giving us this image He makes
known His request to fulfill His will." --priest interviewee
"Sr. Faustina
said: The world is incapable of its own conversion. We must trust in Divine
Mercy. Why do we talk about Divine Mercy today? The devotion began before World
War II. God was warning that a war was coming. Is God warning us again? God is
calling us back to God's mercy, to Jesus Christ." --Cardinal Dziwisz
"Divine Mercy is
the last barrier to the spread of evil in the world." --John Paul II