MORE ON THE HUMILITY OF GOD....part one

Ilia Delio, O.S.F, whose book, "The Humility Of God" I recommended in my last blog, quotes St. Bonaventure:

"Indeed, no sorrow was ever comparable to yours, O Lord Jesus Christ! Your blood was shed so abundantly that your whole body was soaked with it...why did you let your blood pour forth in a river when a single drop would have sufficed for the redemption of the world? I know, Lord, I know in all truth that you did this for no other reason than to show the depth of your love for me! Christ on the cross bows his head waiting that he may kiss you; his arms outstretched that he may embrace you , his hands are open that he may enrich you; his body spread out that he may give himself totally; his feet are nailed, that he may stay there; his side is open for you, that he may let you enter there." Delio then writes, "With arms outstretched, the kiss and embrace of Christ in a broken world is the fullest expression of the humility of God. The Cross signifies to us that God is vulnerable in love. And he does this in such a visible way that we would have to ask, what kind of lover would God be if God's love remained untouched by the sufferings of humanity?" She then goes on to say that ,"God is the begger who will not force his way into our homes unless we open the door." Her book,"The Humility Of God", points the way to his compassionate love for the whole creation, bending down to embrace it...and so, we begin to see what humility is. Her quote of Elie Wiesel: "The SS hanged two Jewish men and a youth in front of the whole camp. The men died quickly, but the death throes of the youth lasted for half an hour. "Where is God? Where is he?" Someone asked behind me. As the youth still hung in torment in the noose after a long time, I heard a voice in myself answer,: "Where is he? He is here. He is hanging there on the gallows."