Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Words from the Doctor of Grace

While we're all fretting about healthcare, et al; I thought a bit of wisdom from St. Augustine might be particularly fitting for those of us waiting in joyful hope. (Thanks Myra, for coming up with the great idea to make a study of Augustine's Confessions...this is a preface of the good things to come.)

"The maker of man, he was made man, so that the director of the stars might be a babe at the breast; that bread might be hungry, and the fountain thirsty; that the light might sleep, and the way be weary from a journey; that the truth might be accused by false witnesses, and the judge of the living and the dead be judged by a mortal judge; that justice might be convicted by the unjust, and discipline be scourged with whips; that the cluster of grapes might be crowned with thorns, and the foundation be hung up on a tree; that strength might grow weak, eternal health be wounded, life die.

It was in order to endure these and similar indignities for our sake; in order to set free those who had forfeited all dignity; though he deserved no evil but endured such terrible evils on our behalf, and we deserved no good, but received such splendid goods through him; so it was for these reasons that the one who was before all ages the Son of God, without beginning of days, was prepared in these last days to become a son of man; and that the one who was born of the Father, not made by the Father, was made in the Mother whom he had made; so that he might exist here for a time, being born of her who could never and nowhere have existed except through him."

St. Augustine of Hippo (+430)

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