“Don’t take it personally.”
Usually this is said when someone offers some kind of critiscim or slight insult. It a kinda of way to give you an out or maybe to spare your feelings.
When it comes to the death of Christ, I’d say: Take it personally.
Father John Richard’s, of whom, I’m a huge fan, likes to say, “God doesn’t see crowds.”
And Fr. John is right. God doesn’t. In the whole of the vast Universe, all the God of the Universe sees is you.
Why did He invade His own creation: to save you.
Why did He allow His creature, the one He created, to beat ‘em, mock ‘em, spit on ‘em, scourge Him, betray Him, build a cross (again, out of His own creation), make Him carry it, and to nail to it, naked, to suffer onto Death?
To save you.
Because He love you.
Yes, yes, Jesus died for all mankind. That’s great.
But He took it personally and so should we.