Today,
that the Creator of all Life announces his own delivery into the
hands of those whom He has come to save in exchange of his own life,
is quite a provocation. It can be said that it was not necessary,
that it was an exaggeration. But we keep on forgetting the heavy load
overwhelming Christ's heart, our sin, the most radical evil, cause
and effect of our placing ourselves in the place of God. Even more
so, of our not letting God love us, while insisting on remaining
within the limits of our own shortcomings and most immediate present
life. It is so important for us to assume we are sinners as it is for
us to recognize that God loves us in the person of his Son Jesus
Christ. For, after all, we are like his disciples, «But they
didn't understand this saying; something prevented them from grasping
what He meant, and they were afraid to ask him about it» (Lk
9:45).
To put it in images: in
Heaven we shall find all sins and all vices, except arrogance, as
arrogants never admit their own sins and do not let God forgive them,
a God that loves us so much to the point of dying for us. And, in
Hell, we shall be able to find all virtues, except humility, as the
humble one knows himself quite well and fully realizes that without
God's grace, he cannot stop offending him nor can he reciprocate
God's Goodness.
One of the keys of
Christian wisdom is the acknowledgment of the greatness and immensity
of God's Love, while we also acknowledge our smallness and the
vileness of our sin. How slow can we be to grasp it! When the day
will come we shall discover we have at our disposal God's Love, and
we shall say along with St. Augustine, with tears of Love: «It
took me so long to love you, O God!». And that day can be
today. It can be today. It certainly can.
