The natural state of Adam’s descendants encompasses not only sorrow but also despair; not only lamentation but also hardening; not only mourning but also perdition. Man contemplates diligently the evil (Genesis 6:5): hence immediately follows a flood of evils that overflow from his thoughts onto all his actions, swallowing all his powers and – even in external matters – bringing only devastation.
Can God, the Righteous Judge, seek without burning wrath towards the one who transgresses the law at every moment? Can the Good Builder take notice with cold indifference of the lamentations of creatures in distress? Righteous judgment arouses avenging thunderbolts; kindness stays the hand ready to release them. Mercy desires to give the suffering one the cup of salvation, but the insensitive son of perdition cannot bear even to be reminded of the healing of his cruel disease.
Source: Words on the Mystery of the Cross – Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, Sophia Publishing House via http://doxologia.ro.
