God’s unfathomable compassion on humanity after the Fall led Him to reconcile us to himself in the greatest way possible
3 min • Digitized on March 4, 2022
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 46
By Venerable Louis of Granada
After God had created man and placed him in the delights of the terrestrial paradise, by the very favors which should have bound him to the service of his Creator he was emboldened to rebel against Him. For this he was driven into exile and condemned to the eternal pains of hell. He had imitated the rebellion of Satan; therefore, it was just that he should share his punishment.
When Giezi, the servant of Eliseus, received presents from Naaman the leper, the prophet said to him: “Since thou hast received Naaman’s money, the leprosy of Naaman shall also cleave to thee and to thy seed for ever. And he went out from him a leper as white as snow.” [4 Kings v.26, 27.] God pronounced a like sentence against man; Adam wished to share the riches of Lucifer, that is, his pride and his revolt, and, in consequence, the leprosy of Lucifer, that is, the punishment of his revolt, became his portion also. By sin, therefore, man becomes like Satan, he imitates him in his guilt, and shares in his punishment.
Having brought such misery upon himself, man became the object of the Divine compassion, for God was more moved by the condition of His fallen creature than He was indignant at the outrage offered to His goodness. He resolved to restore man and reconcile him with Himself through the mediation of His only Son.
But how was reconciliation effected? Again, what human tongue can express this mercy? Through our Mediator, Christ, such a friendship was established between God and man that the Creator not only pardoned His creature and restored him to His grace and love, but even became one with him. Man has become so one with God that in all creation there is no union that can be compared to this. It is not only a union of grace and love, but it is a union of person also.
Who could have thought that such a breach would be so perfectly repaired? Who could have imagined that two beings so widely separated by nature and sin should one day be united, not only in the same house, at the same table, and in a union of grace, but in one and the same person? Can we think of two beings more widely separated than God and the sinner? Yet where will we find two beings more closely united?
“There is nothing,” says St. Bernard, “more elevated than God, and nothing more base than the clay of which man is formed. Yet God has with such great humility clothed Himself in this clay, and the clay has been so honorably raised to God, that we may ascribe to the clay all the actions of God, and to God all the sufferings of the clay.”