A Treatise on the Ineffable Mystery of our Redemption

Extract

How all the Divine perfections, particularly that of goodness, show forth with greater splendour in our Lord's Passion than in all His other works.

We see, then, that the Passion of Christ our Saviour serves for the glory of God (which we put first), as it makes perfect satisfaction for offences committed against the Divine Majesty and gives Him honour that surpasses the offence rendered Him by sin.

But it did not glorify Him only in this way, for in the sacred Passion the divine grandeur and perfections shine forth more than in all His other actions together.

To begin with His goodness, which in our understanding is the greatest and thaton which God sets the highest store: where is it more resplendent than in the sacred Passion? To make this clear we must first explain the disposition and nature of goodness. “It is’’, says Saint Dionysius, “generous both of itself and all it owns’’. (De Div. Norn. Cap. IV). We see this in the sun, which is a most noble creature. It illumines the whole world, so that nothing is hidden from its light and strength. And the better a thing is, and the more advanced in goodness, the more will it communicate itself. Consequently, God being supremely good, will be supremely communicative of Himself and His perfections to all His creatures: to some more, to others less according to their condition and capacity, as the same Saint declares. And since man has the capacity of goodness and beatitude, God ardently desires (as is natural to Him) to make men good and blessed, like Himself—and this with no self-interest, but from the disposition and nature of His goodness. This is what He sought to show us specially in the work of our Redemption.