Monday, July 30, 2012

Riches of God's Goodness

Nearly all reject the weak and poor as objects of disgust; an earthly king cannot bear the sight of them, rulers turn away from them, while the rich ignore them and pass them by when they meet them as though they did not exist; nobody thinks it desirable to associate with them.

But God, who is served by myriads of powers without number, who “upholds the universe by the word of His power,” * whose majesty is beyond anyone’s endurance, has not disdained to become the Father, the Friend, the Brother of those rejected ones.  He willed to become incarnate so that He might become “like unto us in all things except for sin” † and make us to share in His glory and His kingdom.

What stupendous riches of His great goodness!  What an ineffable condescension on the part of our master and our God.

Symeon the New Theologian, Discourse 2.4


* Hebrews 1:3
† Hebrews 4:15