When the time came for Christ to gather in and bear away to the eternal
kingdom the fruits of all the virtues that ever were and ever shall be
practised upon earth, then the Eternal Sun began to set; for He humbled
Himself and gave up the life of His body into the hands of His enemies.
And in His distress he was misunderstood and forsaken by His friends,
and all consolation, from without and from within, was taken away
from His human nature, and it was overwhelmed with misery and pain,
with scorn and heaviness, and in it He paid all the debt that justice
claimed for sin. He suffered these things with humble patience, and
in this resignation He fulfilled the highest tasks of love, and so He
received and redeemed our eternal heritage. Thus was adorned the lower
part of His noble humanity, for in it He suffered this sorrow for our
sins. And this is why He calls Himself the Saviour of the world; this
is why He is now famous and glorified, exalted and seated at the right
hand of His Father, where He reigns with power. And every creature on
earth, in heaven, and in hell, bends continually the knee before His
glorious name.