Kindness Flows From Him

From Gregory of Nyssa —

Kindness flows from you, Lord, pure and continual.

You had cast us off, as was only just, but mercifully you forgave us;
you hated us and you were reconciled to us, you cursed us and you blessed us;
you banished us from paradise, and you called us back again;
you took from us the fig leaves that had made us so unseemly a garment, and you put on us a cloak of great value;
you opened the prison gates and gave the condemned a pardon;
you sprinkled us with clean water and washed away the dirt.

Never again, after all this, will Adam blush when you call him,
never will he try to hide because his conscience reproaches him,
never will he seek concealment under the trees in the garden.
The flaming sword will nevermore whirl about the walls of paradise
and cut off the entrance from those who approach it.

For us that were heirs to his sin, all has been changed to rejoicing;
for man now has access to paradise and even to heaven itself.
The whole creation, heaven and earth, is at one again in friendship, its former differences forgotten;
men join their voices with the angels and echo the angels' praise of God. ...

There is no doubt who it is that dresses the bride in her finery:
it is, of course, Christ he that is and was and will be.

Blessed is he, now and throughout the ages.

Amen.