A Treatise on the Ineffable Mystery of our Redemption

Extract

When Moses saw that the bush was on fire and yet not burnt, and went to look at this marvel, God told him to put off his shoes, for the place on which he stood was holy ground. (Exod. III). This must be done by those who would gaze on God within this lowly bush of our humanity amid the thorns of his wounds and afflictions. For in order to contemplate this sublime Mystery, so far above our power of reason, a man must put off all that is human: his faults, his weaknesses and human affections, with the judgements, surmises and laws of human prudence, in order that he may contemplate this mysteiy with greater purity. For to seek to measure God’s works by the same measure as our own, with the rod of reason, especially his work of the Redemption, which is that of his infinite goodness and charity, with the goodness and charity to be found in men, however perfect and holy, would be utter folly. It would be to cheapen and depreciate the works of this infinite Grandeur and to set them on a level with our pettiness; for as it is certain that his Being infinitely surpasses ours, so do his actions surpass our own. Hence there could be no greater error than for a man to seek to judge and investigate God by what he sees in himself. These, then, are “ the shoes ” he must put off, these the human weaknesses from which we must free ourselves when we wish to consider the works of sovereign Goodness and Charity that shine forth in this Mystery.