There are two opinions held by theologians on the subject of the
Incarnation. Some hold that had Adam never sinned the Son of God would not
have become incarnate, others that the Incarnation would have taken place
even had our first parents remained in the state of innocence and original
justice in which they were created. For, as they urge, the Word was made
flesh, not to merely be a redeemer and restorer of the human race, but that
through Him God might be glorified. Our Blessed Father held this second
opinion, which he advanced, not only in familiar conversation and in the
pulpit, but also in his writings. In his Theotimus he expresses himself
thus: "God knew from all eternity that He could create an innumerable
multitude of beings with divers perfections and qualities, to whom He
might communicate Himself. And considering that amongst all the different
communications which were possible, none was so excellent as that of
uniting Himself to some created nature, in such sort that the creature
might be engrafted and implanted in the Divinity, and become one single
person with it: His infinite goodness, which of itself and by itself tends
towards communication, resolved and determined to communicate Himself in
this manner. So that, as eternally there is an essential communication in
God, by which the Father communicates all His infinite and indivisible
divinity to the Son in producing Him, and the Father and the Son together
producing the Holy Ghost, communicate to Him also their own singular
divinity; so this sovereign sweetness was so perfectly communicated
externally to a creature that the created nature and the divinity retaining
each of them its own properties were, notwithstanding so united together
that they were but one same person. Now of all the creatures which that
Sovereign Omnipotence could produce, He thought good to make choice of
human nature which afterwards in effect was united to the person of God
the Son, He created it, and to it He destined the incomparable honour of
personal union with His divine majesty, to the end that for all eternity it
might enjoy above all others the treasures of His infinite glory."[1]
This thought has always pleased me exceedingly; this thought, I mean, of
the communication of God, in the worthiest manner possible, namely, through
the mystery of the Incarnation. But ah! What shall we then say of the
mystery of the most holy Eucharist, which is, as it were, an extension of
the Incarnation! In the holy Eucharist the Son of God, in His overflowing
mercy, not content with having made Himself the Son of Man, a sharer in
our humanity and our Brother, has invented a wondrous way of communicating
Himself to each one of us in particular. By this He incorporates Himself in
us, and us in Him. He dwells in us, and makes us dwell in Him, becoming
our food and support, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, by a grace
which surpasses every other grace, since it contains in itself the author
of all grace! Truly, we possess in this divine mystery, though veiled and
hidden under the sacramental species, Him whom the angels desire to see,
even while they see Him continually. Nor is there any difference between
their possession and ours, except in the manner in which it is effected.
For if they have the advantage of sight, we have that of a closer intimacy,
seeing that He is only before them as the Beatific Vision, while He
is actually within us, as the living and life-giving bread, a bread
strengthening our heart, or, rather, the very heart of our heart, or the
soul of our heart, or the heart of our soul. And if the heart of the
disciples of Emmaus burned within them when He only spoke to them on their
way, what ardour should be kindled in our breasts by the receiving of Him
who came to bring the fire of divine love upon earth, that it might inflame
and kindle all hearts!
You ask me whether we are happier in having been redeemed from that state
of original sin into which our first parents fell than had we been born in
the innocence which was theirs at their creation.
At first sight it would seem that never to have been bound by the chain of
misery and evil with which the first sin of Adam fettered us would surely
have been more desirable than even to be loosed from it by the divine
goodness! This, however, is a merely human judgment, revealed to us by
flesh and blood. The light of faith, far brighter and more ennobling,
teaches us a sublimer lesson. This is what our Blessed Father says on the
subject:
"Who can doubt of the abundance of the means of salvation, since we have
so great a Saviour, for the sake of whom we have been made, and by whose
merits we have been ransomed. For He died, for all, because all were dead,
and His mercy was more far-reaching when He built up anew the race of men
than Adam's misery when he ruined it.
"Indeed, Adam's sin was so far from quenching God's love for mankind, that,
on the contrary, it stirred it up, and invited it. So that by a most sweet
and loving re-action, love was quickened by the presence of sin, and as if
re-collecting its forces for victory over evil, made _grace to superabound
where sin had abounded_.[2] Whence, Holy Church, in an excess of devout
wonder, cries out (upon Easter-eve), 'O truly necessary sin of Adam, which
was blotted out by the death of Jesus Christ! O happy fault which merited
to have such and so great a Redeemer!' Truly, Theotimus, we may say, as did
he of old, 'We were ruined, had we not been undone; that is, ruin brought
us profit, since in effect human nature, through being redeemed by its
Saviour, has received more graces than ever it would have received if Adam
had remained innocent.'"[3]
One of the marvels of divine Omnipotence is that it knows by a secret
power, reserved to itself alone, how to draw good from evil, the contrary
from the contrary; water from, fire, as in the furnace of the three
children[4] and fire from water, as in the sacred fire which was found in a
well, the thick water of which was changed into fire. By this secret power
He makes all things work together for good to those who love Him.
"Truly," says our Blessed Father, in the same place, "as the rainbow
touching the thorn _aspalathus_, makes it more odoriferous than the
lily, so our Saviour's Redemption, touching our miseries makes them more
beneficial and worthy of love than original innocence could ever have been.
"_I say to you_, says our Saviour, _there shall be joy in Heaven upon one
sinner that doth penance; more than upon ninety-nine just, who need not
penance_,[5] and so the state of redemption is a hundred times better than
that of innocence.
"Verily, by the watering of our Saviour's Blood, made with the hyssop
of the Cross, we have been re-clothed in a whiteness incomparably more
excellent than the snowy robe of innocence. We come out, like Naaman, from
the stream of salvation more pure and clean than if we had never been
leprous, to the end that the divine majesty, as He has ordained also for
us, should not be _overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good_,[6] _that
mercy_ (as a sacred oil) should keep _itself above judgment_,[7] and _God's
tender mercies be over all His works_."[8]
[Footnote 1: Book ii. chap. 4.]
[Footnote 2: Col. i. 16.]
[Footnote 3: _The Love of God_. Book ii, c. 5.]
[Footnote 4: Daniel iii. 50.]
[Footnote 5: Luke xv. 7.]
[Footnote 6: Rom. xii.]
[Footnote 7: James ii. 13.]
[Footnote 8: Psalm cxliv. 9.]