Then Jesus said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you, I shall not eat it [again] until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

If the Dayeinu hymn that is sung by our Jewish friends today dates to the time of Jesus and the apostles, might not they have sung it at that last Passover meal? The Dayeinu praises Yahweh’s wonderful deeds for his people and echoes with a grateful refrain: Dayeinu – “it would have been enough for us.” With respect, for its Judaic counterpart I humbly offer a Christian’s loving homage:

How manifold are the acts of loving kindness of our man-befriending God!

If in the beginning he had created the world out of nothing, but not sent his Spirit to brood over the waters: it would have been enough for us.

If he had sent his Spirit, but not spoken his Word: it would have been enough for us.

If he had spoken his Word, but not created man out of the earth with his own hands: it would have been enough for us.

If he had made man with his own hands, but had not made him according to his image and after his likeness: it would have been enough for us.

If he had made man in his own image and likeness, but had not planted for him a garden of delight: it would have been enough for us.

If he had created a garden of delight, but not planted in its midst the tree of everlasting life to foreshadow the cross on which would hang the fruit of immortality: it would have been enough for us.

If he had placed Adam in Paradise, but not created Eve as a figure of the church, born of water from the side of Christ, the new Adam, and nourished with his precious Blood: it would have been enough for us.

If he had created Eve as a type of the church, but not clothed his first created with the skins of mortality as an invitation to repentance after the fall: it would have been enough for us.

If he had conceived of repentance for salvation, but had not promised that the son of the woman would trample the head of the serpent: it would have been enough for us.

If he had promised us salvation, but not saved Noah at the time of the flood, foreshadowing the death of sin in the waters of baptism: it would have been enough for us.

If he had saved Noah, but not his family, illustrating by the eight saved in the ark the resurrection on the eighth day, the duskless day of the everlasting kingdom: it would have been enough for us.

If he had saved the eight in the ark, figure of the church, but not made the covenant with Abraham: it would have been enough for us.

If he had made the covenant with Abraham, but had not sent Melchizedek to offer him gifts of bread and wine, symbolizing the oblation of the King of Peace himself: it would have been enough for us.

If he had sent the priestly king Melchizedek to Abraham, but had not visited him at Mamre in the form of three angels as a sign of the Trinity-to-be-revealed: it would have been enough for us.

If he had prefigured the Trinity, but not the sacrifice of Christ in the person of Isaac, who carried the wood of his own self-sacrifice: it would have been enough for us.

If he had symbolized carrying his cross in Isaac, but not his betrayal for pieces of silver in Joseph: it would have been enough for us.

If he had preserved us from famine in Egypt, but had not sent us Moses when there arose a pharaoh who knew not Joseph: it would have been enough for us.

If he had sent Moses to deliver us, but had not revealed the incarnation in the bush unburned: it would have been enough for us.

If he had delivered us, rendering judgment upon Egypt and her gods with great power and outstretched arm, but had not divided the Red Sea: it would have been enough for us.

If he had symbolized the waters of baptism in the Red Sea, but had not showered us with manna as food for the journey: it would have been enough for us.

If he had brought us through the desert feeding us with bread from heaven, but had not given us the law written by his own finger: it would have been enough for us.

If he had given us the law as an indication of sin, but had not sent the prophets to call us to repentance when we went astray: it would have been enough for us.

If he had sent us the prophets, heralds of repentance, but had not sent the great forerunner, the baptist John: it would have been enough for us.

If he had sent us the holy, glorious prophet, forerunner and baptist John, but had not taken on the poverty of our flesh so as to clothe us in the richness of his divinity: it would have been enough for us.

If he had sent his only-begotten Son, but had not preserved the All-Holy’s virginity as a sign that our humanity would not be destroyed by the gift of divinity: it would have been enough for us.

If the Word had taken flesh among us, but had not healed the lame, the deaf, the mute, the blind and raised the dead: it would have been enough for us.

If he had cured our sick and raised our dead, but had not been transfigured on Mount Tabor: it would have been enough for us.

If he had been transfigured between Moses and Elias as a sign that he is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, the Lord of the living and the dead, but had not offered himself as the perfect sacrifice on the life-giving cross: it would have been enough for us.

If he had offered himself for our redemption, but had not given us the divine mysteries of his spotless Body and precious Blood: it would have been enough for us.

If he had granted us the Eucharist, but had not sent down the Holy Spirit as the seal and pledge of eternal life: it would have been enough for us.

If he had poured forth the Holy Spirit, but had not overshadowed us with so great a cloud of witnesses – our God-bearing fathers, the right-victorious martyrs, hierarchs and wonder-workers, faithful strugglers all: it would have been enough for us.

If he had bestowed upon us the treasures of our catholic and orthodox faith, but had not promised to come again in power and glory to render unto each of us our due: it would have been enough for us.

If he had promised to reward the stead-fastness of his faithful ones, but had not pledged to make us partakers of his divine nature: it would have been enough for us.

How manifold are the acts of loving-kindness of our man-befriending God!

In the beginning humanity attempted to steal divinity, which hung from a tree in Eden. Now our compassionate God freely gives us the gift we would have taken by stealth: He bestows upon us the divinity of his only-begotten Son who hangs upon the cross, the tree of everlasting life. As the good thief cries out, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and hears the hope-filled promise, “…today you will be with me in Paradise,” we hear the master’s voice of compassion and pardon.

The drama that began in the garden of Eden ends in the garden where the empty tomb of Christ fills us with life, the life of God himself. The first created Adam, tiller of the soil, failed to tend the garden as he was commanded. Jesus, the new Adam, obedient unto death and now risen from the dead, appears as a gardener to the Magdalene. He, who thought divinity not something to be clung to, says to Mary:

“Do not cling to me,” but announce to my friends that I am risen even as I foretold and that I will go before them to Galilee where first they received the gift of faith in all childlike simplicity. Thence I shall ascend to my Father and shall prepare eternal dwelling places for my beloved: I, the bridegroom, await my virgin church in the royal wedding chamber in the kingdom of heaven.

The prodigal generosity of our Lord is beyond telling. Truly, it is enough for us. To him be all glory, honor, thanksgiving and worship, together with his Father, who is without beginning, and his gracious and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Father Romanos, a priest of the Melkite-Greek Catholic Church, is a frequent contributor to this publication.