Why did our Redeemer need to be both God and Man?
"Blessed are you among all women" (Lk. 1:42)
This blessing, which we say poorly or do not say at all, to Her Who with Her sacrifice began the Redemption, continually resounds in Heaven, pronounced with infinite love by the Trinity, with inflamed charity by those saved by their sacrifice, and by the angelic choirs. All paradise blesses Mary, the masterwork of universal Creation and Divine Mercy.
Even if all the Father's work to create the Earth from nothing had served only to receive Mary, the work of Creation would have had its reason for being, for the perfection of this Creature is such that it is testimony not only of the wisdom and power, but also of the love with which God created the world.
Since the earthly creation has instead yielded Adam and Adam's race, Mary witnesses to the merciful superlove of God towards man, for through Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, God has worked the salvation of the human race. Jesus is the Christ because Mary conceived Him and gave Him to the World.
Some will say that as God Jesus could have overcome the need to take flesh in a woman's womb. He could do all, it's true. But reflect on the law of order and goodness which lies in His annihilation in mortal clothing.
The sin committed by man had to be expiated by man and not by the non-incarnate divinity. How could the Divinity, incorporeal Spirit, redeem the sins of the flesh with the sacrifice of Itself? It was, then, necessary that God should pay for the sins of flesh and blood with the agony of an innocent Flesh and Blood, born of an innocent woman.
His mind, His feeling, and His Spirit would have suffered for our sins in mind, feeling, and spirit. But to be the Redemption of all forms of concupiscence inoculated into Adam and his descendants by the Tempter, the One Immolated for them all had to be endowed with a nature like ours, made worthy of being given as a ransom to God by the Divinity hidden in it, like a gem of infinite supernatural value hidden under common, natural clothing.
God is order, and God does not violate or do violence to order, except in very exceptional cases, judged useful by His intelligence. Such was not the case with His Redemption.
He had not only to cancel sin from the moment it occurred until the moment of the sacrifice and annul in those to come the effects of sin by having them be born unaware of evil. No. With a total sacrifice He had to make reparation for Sin and all the sins of all mankind, give the men already dead absolution of sin, and give those living at that time and in the future the means to be helped to resist evil and to be forgiven for the evil which their weakness would lead them to do.
His sacrifice thus had to be such as to present all the necessary requisites, and it could be such only in a God made man: a host worthy of God, a means understood by man. In addition, He was coming to bring the Law.
If His humanity had not existed, how could we—His poor brothers and sisters, who labor to have faith in Him, who lived for thirty-three years on the earth, a Man among men—have believed? And, how could He appear, already an adult, to hostile or ignorant peoples, making them convinced of His nature and His doctrine? He would then have appeared, in the eyes of the world, as a spirit Who had taken on a human likeness, but not as a man who was born and died, shedding real blood through the wounds of a real flesh—as proof of being a man—and rose again and ascended to Heaven with His glorified body—as proof of being God returning to His eternal dwelling.
Isn't it sweeter for us to think that He is really our brother, with the destiny of creatures who are born, live, suffer, and die, than to conceive of Him as a spirit superior to the exigencies of humanity?
It was necessary, then, for a woman to give birth to Him according to the flesh, after having conceived Him above the flesh, for from no marriage of creatures, no matter how holy they were, could the God-Man be conceived, but only from a wedding of Purity and Love, the Spirit and the Virgin, created without stain so as to be the matrix for the flesh of a God, the Virgin the thought of Whom was God's joy, since before time existed, the Virgin in Whom there is a compendium of the Fathers creative perfection, the joy of Heaven, the salvation of the Earth, the most beautiful flower of Creation of all the flowers of the Universe, a living star before whom all the suns created by the Father seem dull.
Blessed is the Pure One, destined for the Lord.
Blessed is the One Desired by the Trinity, which by desire anticipated the instant of fusing Itself with Her in an embrace of three-fold love.
Blessed is the Victorious Woman who crushes the Tempter under the witness of Her immaculate nature.
Blessed is the Virgin Who knows only the Lord's kiss.
Blessed is the Mother Who has become such out of holy obedience to the will of the Most High.
Blessed is the Martyr Who accepts martyrdom out of mercy on all of us.
Blessed is the Redemptrix of woman and of all the children of woman, Who cancels out Eve and is installed in her place to bear the fruit of life where the Enemy has set the seed of death.
Blessed, blessed, thrice blessed for your "yes," O Mother of Jesus, Who have allowed God to keep the promise made to Abraham, the patriarchs, and the prophets, Who have brought relief to Love, oppressed by having to be the punisher and not the savior, Who have released the Earth from the condemnation brought upon it by Eve.
Blessed, blessed, blessed for Your holy humility, for Your inflamed charity, for Your untouched virginity, for Your divine maternity, multiple, sempiternal, true, and spiritual, Mother Who with Your love and with Your pain give birth continuously to children for the Kingdom of Your Jesus.
Generatrix of grace and salvation, generatrix of divine Mercy, generatrix of the universal Church, may You be blessed eternally for what You have done, as You were eternally blessed for what You would do.
Holy, holy, holy Priestess, Who celebrated the first sacrifice and with part of Yourself prepared the Host to be immolated on the altar of the world.
Holy, holy, holy Mother of Jesus, Who did not cause Him to miss Heaven and the Father's breast, for in You He found another paradise not unlike the one in which the Triad performs Its divine works; Mary, Who are the glory of the Father and the Love of the Spirit."
"Blessed are you among all women" (Lk. 1:42)
This blessing, which we say poorly or do not say at all, to Her Who with Her sacrifice began the Redemption, continually resounds in Heaven, pronounced with infinite love by the Trinity, with inflamed charity by those saved by their sacrifice, and by the angelic choirs. All paradise blesses Mary, the masterwork of universal Creation and Divine Mercy.
Even if all the Father's work to create the Earth from nothing had served only to receive Mary, the work of Creation would have had its reason for being, for the perfection of this Creature is such that it is testimony not only of the wisdom and power, but also of the love with which God created the world.
Since the earthly creation has instead yielded Adam and Adam's race, Mary witnesses to the merciful superlove of God towards man, for through Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, God has worked the salvation of the human race. Jesus is the Christ because Mary conceived Him and gave Him to the World.
Some will say that as God Jesus could have overcome the need to take flesh in a woman's womb. He could do all, it's true. But reflect on the law of order and goodness which lies in His annihilation in mortal clothing.
The sin committed by man had to be expiated by man and not by the non-incarnate divinity. How could the Divinity, incorporeal Spirit, redeem the sins of the flesh with the sacrifice of Itself? It was, then, necessary that God should pay for the sins of flesh and blood with the agony of an innocent Flesh and Blood, born of an innocent woman.
His mind, His feeling, and His Spirit would have suffered for our sins in mind, feeling, and spirit. But to be the Redemption of all forms of concupiscence inoculated into Adam and his descendants by the Tempter, the One Immolated for them all had to be endowed with a nature like ours, made worthy of being given as a ransom to God by the Divinity hidden in it, like a gem of infinite supernatural value hidden under common, natural clothing.
God is order, and God does not violate or do violence to order, except in very exceptional cases, judged useful by His intelligence. Such was not the case with His Redemption.
He had not only to cancel sin from the moment it occurred until the moment of the sacrifice and annul in those to come the effects of sin by having them be born unaware of evil. No. With a total sacrifice He had to make reparation for Sin and all the sins of all mankind, give the men already dead absolution of sin, and give those living at that time and in the future the means to be helped to resist evil and to be forgiven for the evil which their weakness would lead them to do.
His sacrifice thus had to be such as to present all the necessary requisites, and it could be such only in a God made man: a host worthy of God, a means understood by man. In addition, He was coming to bring the Law.
If His humanity had not existed, how could we—His poor brothers and sisters, who labor to have faith in Him, who lived for thirty-three years on the earth, a Man among men—have believed? And, how could He appear, already an adult, to hostile or ignorant peoples, making them convinced of His nature and His doctrine? He would then have appeared, in the eyes of the world, as a spirit Who had taken on a human likeness, but not as a man who was born and died, shedding real blood through the wounds of a real flesh—as proof of being a man—and rose again and ascended to Heaven with His glorified body—as proof of being God returning to His eternal dwelling.
Isn't it sweeter for us to think that He is really our brother, with the destiny of creatures who are born, live, suffer, and die, than to conceive of Him as a spirit superior to the exigencies of humanity?
It was necessary, then, for a woman to give birth to Him according to the flesh, after having conceived Him above the flesh, for from no marriage of creatures, no matter how holy they were, could the God-Man be conceived, but only from a wedding of Purity and Love, the Spirit and the Virgin, created without stain so as to be the matrix for the flesh of a God, the Virgin the thought of Whom was God's joy, since before time existed, the Virgin in Whom there is a compendium of the Fathers creative perfection, the joy of Heaven, the salvation of the Earth, the most beautiful flower of Creation of all the flowers of the Universe, a living star before whom all the suns created by the Father seem dull.
Blessed is the Pure One, destined for the Lord.
Blessed is the One Desired by the Trinity, which by desire anticipated the instant of fusing Itself with Her in an embrace of three-fold love.
Blessed is the Victorious Woman who crushes the Tempter under the witness of Her immaculate nature.
Blessed is the Virgin Who knows only the Lord's kiss.
Blessed is the Mother Who has become such out of holy obedience to the will of the Most High.
Blessed is the Martyr Who accepts martyrdom out of mercy on all of us.
Blessed is the Redemptrix of woman and of all the children of woman, Who cancels out Eve and is installed in her place to bear the fruit of life where the Enemy has set the seed of death.
Blessed, blessed, thrice blessed for your "yes," O Mother of Jesus, Who have allowed God to keep the promise made to Abraham, the patriarchs, and the prophets, Who have brought relief to Love, oppressed by having to be the punisher and not the savior, Who have released the Earth from the condemnation brought upon it by Eve.
Blessed, blessed, blessed for Your holy humility, for Your inflamed charity, for Your untouched virginity, for Your divine maternity, multiple, sempiternal, true, and spiritual, Mother Who with Your love and with Your pain give birth continuously to children for the Kingdom of Your Jesus.
Generatrix of grace and salvation, generatrix of divine Mercy, generatrix of the universal Church, may You be blessed eternally for what You have done, as You were eternally blessed for what You would do.
Holy, holy, holy Priestess, Who celebrated the first sacrifice and with part of Yourself prepared the Host to be immolated on the altar of the world.
Holy, holy, holy Mother of Jesus, Who did not cause Him to miss Heaven and the Father's breast, for in You He found another paradise not unlike the one in which the Triad performs Its divine works; Mary, Who are the glory of the Father and the Love of the Spirit."
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