Struggle ensues from this union of his love with us. For him alone, without us, there would be no struggle, for he loves the Father and human beings; he is Love. We, however, are not-love, with which his love burdens itself in order to overcome it. This overcoming does not take place in eternity; the battle is fought on earth, unto the death on the Cross, within the measurable time of the Son’s life that is depicted for us in Scripture, that we see as a limited period within our time, but that belongs so much to eternity that his years on earth cannot be subtracted from the eternity of the Son. Suffering in our time unto death, the Son makes known to us that the time of suffering is transitory, that his triumph in the Resurrection is a victory of heaven over earth, a proof of the Father’s power in the Son of Man, and that we share in this victory and our present time will be conquered by imperishable time.

[The Gates of Eternal Life, Adrienne von Speyr, pgs. 24-25]