Cross of Death, Tree of Life (3)

“The all-consuming love of the Father consumes the Son as an acceptable oblation. The pain of His body is nothing compared to the desire of His heart to release the burning fire of love on all created reality. ‘Oh, that You would tear the heavens open and come down – at Your Presence the mountains would melt, as fire sets brushwood alight, as fire causes water to boil – to make known Your name to Your enemies, and make the nations tremble at Your Presence, working unexpected miracles such as no one has ever heard of before’ (Is. 64:1-4). God, who chose to become a human being, took to Himself all our weakness. Now, impaled on the cross, He embraces all our pain and suffering, thus enabling us to see ourselves for what we really are. Lifted up before our gaze, He draws all the members of the human family to the Father. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. In Him: in those limbs nailed fast to the wood of the cross, we find the mystery of God’s loving kindness and merciful justice.”
~Jerome Machar