The Passion will crush Jesus in every possible
way; indeed it will destroy him insofar as human eyes can tell. And yet
his obliteration will be like the crushing of grapes, a destruction that
horribly disfigures the fruit’s original shape and integrity yet only in order
to transform it into an inebriating elixir of life for others to drink and rejoice
ecstatically. God can use men’s evil intentions to achieve magnificent ends. If
he could not, would he still be the omnipotent, wise and loving Creator of all?
The constant marvel throughout, the unfathomable divine mystery that provides
the key to the Passion and the Cross, is this truth of Revelation: that, at the
threshold of the Passion, the Father—whose love for his only-begotten Son is
the very foundation of both the Godhead and of all creation—did not love us
sinners less than he loves the one Son.
