does the Lord thy God require of thee, but that thou fear and love Him? [Deut. 10:12]
In order to force us to love Him God would not commission others, but chose to come Himself in person to be made Man and to redeem us. St. John Chrysostom makes a beautiful reflection on these words of the Apostle: For nowhere doth He take hold of the Angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold. [Heb. 2:16] Why, asks the Saint, did he not say received, but rather apprehended? Why did not St. Paul simply say that God assumed human flesh? Why would he affirm with marked emphasis that He took it, as it were, by force, according to the strict meaning of the word apprehend? He answers that he spoke thus, making use of the metaphor of those who give chase to the flying. By this he would convey the idea that God already longed to beloved by man, but man turned his back upon Him; and cared not even to know of His love; therefore God came from Heaven, and took human flesh, to make Himself known in this way, and to make Himself loved, as it were, by force by ungrateful man, who fled from Him, For this, then, did the Eternal Word become Man; for this He, moreover, became an Infant. He could, indeed, have appeared upon this earth a full-grown Man, as the first man Adam appeared. No, the Son of God wished to present Himself under the form of a sweet little Child, that thus He might the more readily and the more forcibly draw to Himself the love of man. Little children of themselves are loved at once, and to see them and to love them is the same thing. With this view, says St.
