“…who was predestinated the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead…”
God the Father is love itself, and the Word is the word “I Love You,” and what is the Incarnation but love put into action? “My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Christ Himself was always set aside as the expression of the power of God’s love: for Christ is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and “love is strong as death” (Song 8:6). The endurance of Christ through His Passion shows the lengths to which love shall run, for your soul is so precious to Him that He endured all the torments that He suffered for your sake, and that He saw it to the end shows the strength of His love for you. This expression of love was always the plan in the Divine Mind, for He did not cry out in surprise at Adam and Eve’s fall, but knew what their action would be, and He set out to use their disobedience to express His love, for it is a classic story of the hero rescuing the imprisoned maiden. So too does Christ run to His people, imprisoned in sin and a lack of true love, to set them free by His might and nourish them with affection. The sheer grace of His Incarnation was always predestined, then, and this was enacted by the sanctifying Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit alone could make a virgin conceive and bear a son, and this was done to sanctify the whole world. This spirit of sanctification dwelt in the Blessed Virgin and Christ until the dawning of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon God’s people, that Christ’s presence may dwell on earth in the baptized faithful, using them to sanctify the whole world with love. Therefore, the Incarnation, life, passion, and resurrection of Jesus show the love of God and the expression of the spirit of sanctification through Christ Himself, then He ascended to Heaven and opened the heavens to all believers, that the Holy Spirit may be poured out in abundance, for there is no giver as gracious as God; “If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11). The greatest of gifts is the gift of the Holy Spirit, for by His action He makes Christ present in you, which is the sanctifying spirit for yourself, and this spirit of love perceived by others draws them to Christ, that He may be loved more through you.