An Allegory

Imagine that the most powerful emperor who ever lived had a wise, beautiful, noble, and well-beloved son, the very paragon of all that we could conceive of as royal glory; and imagine further that, in the filthiest slums of his poorest city, there lived a prostitute as lowly and destitute and unlovely and crippled as ever crawled about in the filth of squalor. Now, suppose this noble prince set his love on that lowly woman; and suppose that, fearful to terrify her by the greatness of his glory, he gave up all his riches and prestige, took upon himself rags, and wandered for years in the squalor surrounding her, living as she did, surviving on moldy crusts, sleeping in gutters, trembling in the frost; suppose that he pursued her in this way for many years, and when she despised him he bore with it all patiently, and he gave himself up to care for and provide for her so that he might win her love. And suppose that, in doing this, he degraded himself so utterly in the eyes of his kingdom that all who had trembled before him, and bowed down in terror when he walked by, now only laughed and mocked at him, they spat upon and beat and bruised him; and finally, when they set their evil hearts to abuse this woman whom he had loved, he set himself between them, and gave up his life protecting her – supposing all that, do you think you have formed a fitting picture of the love of Christ for his Church? No, you have not even scratched the surface, for the descent of this great Prince is as nothing to the descent that Christ made from a glory which far exceeds all the light and momentary splendor of earthly kings, so that he might pursue and win and love us forever.