The Real Tragedy of Hell

"Hmmm . . . God as a newborn babe . . . so beastly hard to imagine, much less grasp . . . coming to us (if that's at all the right phrase) clothed in this absurdly quiet, simple, unassuming familiarity that's so easy to despise . . . or at least overlook? So easy to pat and patronize and condescend to, to 'awww' and coo over. Or just roll our eyes over. But apart from that, no ferment, no drama. Certainly nothing on the order of 'shock and awe.'

"In other words, pretty much the same way He is with most of us - at least most of the time? - year round, day in and day out. Only not as a newborn in a manger (thank God). I mean, for crying out loud, once and for all can't He stop pussyfooting around and just show Himself for WHAT HE IS? And in a way that's utterly unmistakable, convincing, overwhelming?"

How sad, that when our Maker finally does manifest Himself in the way that I think we hypermoderns, in particular, presumably would most "like" and respect . . . or surely at least find cool beyond words? . . . when He finally does come to us big and bad, awesome and full-spectrum-dominance, kickass and sweeping and global and heavy-duty industrial ENOUGH (picture the insides of a steel mill from - well, you know) . . . by that time, for many of us it may be too late.

Of course, ALL things are possible with God. Provided, that is, we don't despise and delay That which He makes possible. Divine Mercy is always an urgent grace, to be pursued, grasped, clung to. But always within a very definite, very circumscribed Present - "seek the Lord WHILE he may be found," "behold, NOW is the day of salvation" - not as an optional gift to be presumed on and postponed for an indefinite, unbounded future.

But if we can't accept a helpless, homeless infant as sign and token of mercy - but all the more so One who is Mercy Incarnate - then who else is left?