God gives everything for love. He leaves nothing in reserve.
I was reading a little excerpt from a book that I picked up the other day, and I was reminded of some information I had long ago learned as a school girl about angels.
The angels – and there are many of them – are messengers of God, which is why they are often depicted with wings. And when God created them, the angels – who have a higher spiritual soul than we humans – were given all knowledge at once by God.
They – unlike us humans who require our Earthly lives to learn of God and make a choice about whether we accept Him or reject Him – did not have to spend time learning to know God more or to understand His love or infinite power better. They were simply provided with all knowledge of God at once, which is why they did not need a lifetime to choose to be with God or not – they decided in an instant. This is how Hell – which is the separation from God – was created. God allowed the fallen angels into Hell out of LOVE for them and their free will in accepting their MOST PAINFUL CHOICE to reject God and His infinite LOVE.
Saint Padre Pio described even his own imperfect knowledge of God’s infinite love as PAINFUL.
His words are beautiful and nothing that I could pen would come close to giving credit to his understanding of God’s love – so I have simply reproduced this great Saint’s words here instead of my own clumsy ones because Saint Padre Pio – through the wonderful gift of Grace – saw a very small something of God’s infinite LOVE for us.
"Father, I cannot survive this pain. In trying to hold up under it, I feel myself crushed and my life slipping away. I cannot tell you if I am alive or not in those moments. I am outside of myself. Pain and sweetness clash within me, and my soul experiences a swoon that is both sweet and bitter.
The embraces of delight follow one another in abundance (and I would say relentlessly and without measure). My efforts to prop myself up do not succeed in preventing the acute martyrdom of feeling incapable of bearing the weight of an infinite love."
One of my sisters reminded me of Christ’s words to Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane – “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Lk 22:48). Other translations speak of Christ calling Judas “Friend”. There – in that moment of betrayal that would herald not only the torture and death of God Himself on the Cross, but the damnation of Judas’ own soul through his ultimate sin of despair – there did Christ call Judas by NAME and gave him the title FRIEND. Because there, even in that moment, Christ KNEW Judas the Betrayer and LOVED him – PERFECTLY AND UNCEASINGLY.
There Christ stood and showed us what it is to turn the other cheek. He did it in the only way it could ever count. Christ – God HIMSELF – turned the other cheek when He was struck by betrayal and allowed the betrayer to strike again – FATALLY!
This is some sort of insanity isn’t it?
Christ could have protected and saved Himself. He could have at the very least – as MAN, if not as GOD – used His human legs to run away or used his disciples to fight for Him. He could have – as GOD and MAN – used the angels to carry Him away or used His OWN DIVINE POWERS to do the same.
Yet Christ did not USE anything. He SPENT Himself and TURNED the other cheek.
Because Christ knows something we humans will never understand in this Earthly life.
Christ KNOWS INFINITE LOVE FOR US. So, in a way Christ is insane – because Christ, who is GOD, is MADLY INLOVE WITH US!
And through this madness, Christ showed it to us, through every beating, spit, fall, bruise, profanity directed at him and every drop of blood from His Blessed Body – even until there was not a drop of blood left for Him to shed.
Remember when Christ died, blood and water flowed from His sacred side pierced by a spear – because for God there is nothing halfway in love. He GIVES EVERYTHING - every single drop of blood until there is no blood left to give - FOR LOVE!
Now, if only we could really KNOW what that really meant!
For upon reflection and through grace, everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.