It was a _new life_ that Our Lord entered upon at the moment of the
Incarnation. He had had His Divine Life from all eternity, but God had
never before been man. He now for the first time could express Himself
through a human body. God could adore with human lips, could love with a
human heart, could suffer through human senses, could plan with a human
intelligence, could reason with a human mind. The consequence of the
union of the two natures was that the human nature was perfect, more
than perfect--it was Divine, and God received at the moment of the
Incarnation, the first perfect human act of adoration, the first perfect
human act of love, of humility and of all the other virtues. The God-Man
could adore perfectly, because being God He knew God and knew what
adoration was fitting for God; it was God adoring God and yet it was a
human act, the act of a man like ourselves. At that moment God received
what He wanted from one of the human race. The first breath drawn by His
Son Incarnate made it worth His while to have created man in spite of
the Fall. He received not only reparation but all He expected from the
human race when He first created it. He was satisfied, and would have
been satisfied even if that first moment had also been His last on
earth. The Incarnation would have done its work, the justice of God
could have required no more--a human will was perfectly submissive to
His Will, a human heart beat in unison with His, a human creature
offered itself as a victim for the race: "Behold, I come to do Thy Will,
O My God," I have desired it. (Ps. XXXIX. 8, 9). God received at the
moment of the Incarnation a higher act of worship than He had ever
received from all the nine choirs of Angels, and that act was a _human_
act. Did the Angels who fell understand this and was this the cause of
their rebellion? It is true that this first moment of the Incarnation
would have more than satisfied God, but it was not enough for the
God-made-Man. He would go on, on even to the death of the cross, not to
satisfy His Father's justice, but His own love, and to show to those
whom by His Incarnation He had made His brethren to what lengths love
can go. Every breath He drew was as perfect as the first--a perfect
offering, a perfect act of adoration; every beat of His Heart until He
said: "Father, into Thy Hands I commend My Spirit," was a perfect act of
love; every act, every thought, every word perfect, because they were
the acts, thoughts and words of _God_.