A story for every day...
God takes care of man.
In 1824, the Protestant scholar Charles Jarke converted to Catholicism in Cologne. The cause of his conversion was the following fact: in conversation, Jarke remarked that if God existed, He would care about the world. Someone replied: “I think that God has cared enough about man, since He made Himself man.” The scholar did not return from his astonishment, for he hardly knew the mystery of the Incarnation. He began to study again, and the fruit of his studies was his conversion to Catholicism.
Every Christian should often meditate on the Incarnation of the Son of God, because God’s goodness and mercy are so vividly revealed there.
The bill paid twice.
Suppose a student buys books. The student’s father pays the bookseller; later the student pays a second time. Since the amount due is paid twice, the student has the right to ask for the amount he has paid again and the bookseller will have to pay it back.
So it is between God and man. Man is condemned to pay for Adam’s sin with his life. But Jesus Christ came, not having sinned and willing, though not subject to death, to die for us and thus pay our debt. Nevertheless we must die, having a mortal body as a result of Adam’s sin, so that we pay a second time the debt already paid. It is therefore right that we should receive the life of the body again, which will take place at the resurrection of the dead. The pledge of this resurrection is given to us by that of Jesus Christ. He is, according to Saint Paul, the first fruits of those who are in the sleep of death. It is because He has merited life for us that He says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” (S. John 11:25.)
