Our being laid claim to and taken seriously as a PERSON

...Christianity has shed the light of love over humanity and in this light the unique worth of every individual person is made manifest. Without this light the general principles of human rights could not have been formulated, principles that are normative indeed for us, even though in practice they are frequently trodden underfoot... In vain we shall search the world before Christ for this kind of outlook of man on his fellow man... In none of these will we find the kind of respect for the person of one's neighbor that can only be established as a principle for the first time by the Christian revelation. For God, in his boundless involvement, has indeed always the individual in mind (though all in community are just as much his preoccupation); and as he moves toward the individual, so he lights up his unique dignity as a person. But should the source of God's gracious involvement fall into oblivion, then sooner or later the face of the person will become indistinct, and he will sink back once more into mere anonymity.

Because, however, the most significant thing in life that can happen to our neighbor is his being laid claim to and taken seriously as a person, an event that leaves on him the most lasting impression, a state that constitutes for him the source of the greatest happiness he can know on earth, in this above all lies the credibility of the Church, and the success of the mission of Christianity.
-- Hans Urs von Balthasar, pg 54-55.

A Sign of Joy in the Universal Darkness -- Balthasar

The best thing a Christian can do, therefore, is in no way to wish to be the master of his own moods, but simply to allow himself to be led by his living faith into whatever is presented to him in the course of time. Again to be led by faith means to remain in perpetual contact with the source and to have no desire to seek one's own adventure. The greatest adventure after all is God's redeeming action for the world in his Son, and if we follow the Son's course we shall not run the risk of losing ourselves on the slippery paths of self-inverted love. "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." (1 Jn 4:10).

p 102 Engagement with God

The Tradition of Faith Becomes a Womb of Life

Another quote from The Resurrection Effect by Anthony J Kelly

When, and to the degree, this witnessing to the resurrection is part of the fabric of the tradition, that tradition retains its inexhaustible novelty. It lives with the assurance of its capacities to mediate to all believers the manner in which God has entered into our world and met it at the sharpest edges of the problem of evil, typified in suffering, death, guilt and meaninglessness. The tradition of faith becomes a womb of life, forming the followers of Christ into agents of a new humanity through the power of his Spirit. After the resurrection of the crucified One, the world can never be the same. It is always timely, then, for theology to re-immerse itself in the phenomenon of the resurrection, and to focus its energies on the most radical and transforming moment of Christian faith. - pp 63-64 (my emphasis)

I found this sentence: The tradition of faith becomes a womb of life, forming the followers of Christ into agents of a new humanity through the power of his Spirit. to be very appropriate as we look through an anthropological and mimetic lense.

The Resurrection Effect - Transforming Christian Life & Thought - Anthony J Kelly

A book recommendation by Gil Bailie

(Lk 1:4). In contrast (to Luke's Gospel), Paul, though presuming all or much of this, was not concerned with presenting any "orderly account," overwhelmed as he is by the revelation of the risen One that had been made to him. That singular truth was not to be lost in the details of times, places, characters, teaching and events that had significance only in terms of Jesus being raised by God. It would seem that Paul is implicitly taking for granted the various traditions of the logia, miracles and exemplary actions recollected from the earthly life of Jesus, and to some degree deliberately refocusing the emerging tradition on its central point. For him, such details were not the place to start, even if as a teacher in Antioch he would have been familiar with all elements that were forming the tradition (Acts 13:1). The radical moment of truth was not knowing Jesus "in the flesh" (2 Cor 5:16). That, by itself, would not raise Christian existence above an improved Jewish ethics or Greek wisdom or, for that matter, beyond an overheated apocalyptic vision. For him, everything must be centered, and continually re-centered, on the resurrection of the Crucified, in anticipation of a completely new creation (2 Cor 5:17). It was not a matter of looking back, but of looking forward and outward to a creation transformed.

Anthony J Kelly


Want a bit more from the book before deciding to purchase the book (through the link above)? Read Chapter 7

Prayer Leads One to a Calling - Vocation

Reading the following quote on Vocation from Gil Bailie's blog:

“It is the nature of a vocation to appear to men in the double character of a duty and a desire. . . . To follow the vocation does not mean happiness: but once it has been heard, there is no happiness for those who do not follow.” – C. S. Lewis

reminded me of our own need to realize that ones calling into vocation does not come from some deep and inner subconscious or yearning. Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his book entitled "Prayer" sums it up this way:

In obeying his calling a person fulfills his essence, although he would never have been able to discover this, his own archetype and ideal within himself, in his nature, by descending into the center of his natural being, his superego, his subconscious or super conscious, by studying his pre-dispositions, yearning, talents, his potential. Simon the fisherman could have explored every region of his ego prior to his encounter with Christ, but he would not have found "Peter" there; for the present, the "form" summed up in the name "Peter", the particular mission reserved for him alone, is hidden in the mystery of Christ's soul.

Books? Who Reads Books?

A nifty essay on libraries and books (remember them?) by Robert Darnton,

... the strongest argument for the old-fashioned book is its effectiveness for ordinary readers. Thanks to Google, scholars are able to search, navigate, harvest, mine, deep link, and crawl (the terms vary along with the technology) through millions of Web sites and electronic texts. At the same time, anyone in search of a good read can pick up a printed volume and thumb through it at ease, enjoying the magic of words as ink on paper. No computer screen gives satisfaction like the printed page. But the Internet delivers data that can be transformed into a classical codex. It already has made print-on-demand a thriving industry, and it promises to make books available from computers that will operate like ATM machines: log in, order electronically, and out comes a printed and bound volume. Perhaps someday a text on a hand-held screen will please the eye as thoroughly as a page of a codex produced two thousand years ago.

Meanwhile, I say: shore up the library. Stock it with printed matter. Reinforce its reading rooms. But don't think of it as a warehouse or a museum. While dispensing books, most research libraries operate as nerve centers for transmitting electronic impulses. They acquire data sets, maintain digital re-positories, provide access to e-journals, and orchestrate information systems that reach deep into laboratories as well as studies. Many of them are sharing their intellectual wealth with the rest of the world by permitting Google to digitize their printed collections. Therefore, I also say: long live Google, but don't count on it living long enough to replace that venerable building with the Corinthian columns. As a citadel of learning and as a platform for adventure on the Internet, the research library still deserves to stand at the center of the campus, preserving the past and accumulating energy for the future.

Read all of The Library in the New Age.