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"Wherefore I gave My Word, My only-begotten Son, because the whole stuff of
human generation was corrupted through the sin of the first man Adam.
Wherefore, all of you, vessels made of this stuff, were corrupted and not disposed to
the possession of eternal life -- so I, with My dignity, joined Myself to the baseness of
your human generation, in order to restore it to grace which you had lost by sin; for
I was incapable of suffering, and yet, on account of guilt, My divine justice
demanded suffering. But man was not sufficient to satisfy it, for, even if he had
satisfied to a certain extent, he could only have satisfied for himself, and not for
other rational creatures, besides which, neither for himself, nor for others, could
man satisfy, his sin having been committed against Me, who am the Infinite Good.
Wishing, however, to restore man, who was enfeebled, and could not satisfy for the
above reason, I sent My Word, My own Son, clothed in your own very nature, the
corrupted clay of Adam, in order that He might endure suffering in that self-same
nature in which man had offended, suffering in His body even to the opprobrious
death of the Cross, and so He satisfied My justice and My divine mercy. For My
mercy willed to make satisfaction for the sin of man and to dispose him to that good
for which I had created him. This human nature, joined with the divine nature,
was sufficient to satisfy for the whole human race, not only on account of the pain
which it sustained in its finite nature, that is in the flesh of Adam, but by virtue of
the Eternal Deity, the divine and infinite nature joined to it. The two natures being
thus joined together, I received and accepted the sacrifice of My only-begotten Son,
kneaded into one dough with the divine nature, by the fire of divine love which
was the fetter which held him fastened and nailed to the Cross in this way. Thus
human nature was sufficient to satisfy for guilt, but only by virtue of the divine
nature. And in this way was destroyed the stain of Adam's sin, only the mark of it
remaining behind, that is an inclination to sin, and to every sort of corporeal defect,
like the cicatrice which remains when a man is healed of a wound. In this way the
original fault of Adam was able still to cause a fatal stain; wherefore the coming of
the great Physician, that is to say, of My only-begotten Son, cured this invalid, He
drinking this bitter medicine, which man could not drink on account of his great
weakness, like a foster-mother who takes medicine instead of her suckling, because
she is grown up and strong, and the child is not fit to endure its bitterness. He was
man's foster-mother, enduring, with the greatness and strength of the Deity united
with your nature, the bitter medicine of the painful death of the Cross, to give life to
you little ones debilitated by guilt. I say therefore that the mark alone of original sin
remains, which sin you take from your father and your mother when you were
generated by them. But this mark is removed from the soul, though not altogether,
by Holy Baptism, which has the virtue of communicating the life of grace by means
of that glorious and precious Blood. Wherefore, at the moment that the soul
receives Holy Baptism, original sin is taken away from her, and grace is infused into
her, and that inclination to sin, which remains from the original corruption, as has
been said, is indeed a source of weakness, but the soul can keep the bridle on it if she
choose. Then the vessel of the soul is disposed to receive and increase in herself
grace, more or less, according as it pleases her to dispose herself willingly with
affection, and desire of loving and serving Me; and, in the same way, she can
dispose herself to evil as to good, in spite of her having received grace in Holy
Baptism. Wherefore when the time of discretion is come, the soul can, by her free
will, make choice either of good or evil, according as it pleases her will; and so great