Late

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!” (Saint Augustine).

The Conversion of Saint Augustine (Fra Angelico)

Why did Christ come to Earth?  Why did God Himself enter time and space?  It is sort of crazy.  It would be as though I created a cartoon and then after running the cartoon for a while decided to enter the cartoon and behave like a cartoon character and allow the other cartoon characters to overpower me and decide how I should be treated.  It is as though those two-dimensional creatures had authority over me even though they could never even imagine a fraction of what I am in all my three-dimensional glory!

Now, take that scenario and magnify it by a billion trillion and you will not even come close to the immensity of what God actually did through the Incarnation and His Passion and Death to redeem miserable souls like mine…

“Jesus said to them, ‘All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.’” (John 6:35-40).

Christ did not come to Earth to save most people, or many people.  He came to earth to do the will of the Father and save ALL PEOPLE.  When He was suffering in Agony on the Cross, He THIRST – not because He was physically thirsty – though He undoubtedly was thirsty – but because He was thirsting for souls.  He wanted to make sure that there was not a soul left and that not a bit of His suffering was wasted and not a soul was wasted…

Some souls do not want to be saved.  Christ bleeds out all His heart and all the blood inside His body on that Cross, and still some souls do not want to be saved…

When Saint Augustine was a young man he prayed a prayer that said, “Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.”  He came LATE to Our Lord.  And yet, he did come to Our Lord through Grace as God had a great use for his soul…

Saint Augustine prayed, “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside. You were with me, but I was not with you. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”What a prayer.  I feel that I too loved God late – after He already thirst…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.