It is utterly impossible to conceive of God as He is. We can only think of Him by way of negation or by way of analogy. By the method of negation we deny in Him all that is limited and imperfect-He is the Infinite, the Eternal, the All-perfect; by the method of analogy, rising to His Divine At tributes from the consideration of the excellences in men which are His gifts, we say in our stammering speech that He is Absolute Justice, Mercy, Wisdom, and the like. Such words are true, so far as words are able to express truth, for all goodness in the creature must be found in perfection in the Creator. Yet we know that human language is defective, and human thought fails to express God adequately. We see Him as in a glass darkly, not yet face to face.
In the Incarnation of God all this is reversed. The Infinite and the Eternal limits Himself by submission, as Man, to the conditions of time and space. He shrouds His dazzling Glory. The Mighty becomes weak, taking the form of a slave. He who made the earth becomes a Babe and lies upon straw. We see Him, who feeds us all, a-hungered and a-thirst. He who poises the Heavens with His power is tired, and sits wearied beside Jacob's Well. He falls beneath the weight of a cross of wood. Upon that Cross the Immortal renders up the ghost. . . .
This is the Mystery of the Bending-down of the Heavens to the earth ; it is also the Mystery of the Mother of God. For she is the point of contact, " the medium between the divine and the human." Her Son is the Creator. His Mother is a creature, the work of His Hands. Yet, in her chaste Womb the divine and the human met, for the Fruit of her Womb is both God and Man, Christ Jesus our Lord. On this account it is said, with reason, that the great Mystery of the Mother of God, is like the Mystery of God Himself, in that it too transcends all thought and speech. But transcendent though it be, it is a Mystery which we must needs ponder within our souls, for it is the inmost core of our religion—the religion of Divine Love manifested in Divine Abasement.
When we say that God is God, we have said all that can well be said, though we may develop the thought, dwelling upon His Attributes; in like manner when we have said that Mary is the Mother of God, we have exhausted the measure of her dignity. Yet we do well to linger on this holy ground, for the more we dwell upon the thought of Mary's Motherhood, the deeper glows the Mystery, and the more resplendent is seen to be the glory of our Lady.
