Unless a person is acquainted with trembling awe, reaching down to the very ground of his being, at the thought of God's nature, he will not be ready for the contemplation of Jesus Christ. At the least, he will need to prepare himself in the school of the Old Covenant. Otherwise he will be in danger of coming to Christ like someone blind and dumb, finding nothing more in him than an example of perfect humanity; such a person would not be contemplating God, but man, i.e., himself. Anyone contemplating the life of Jesus needs to be newly and more deeply aware every day that something impossible, something scandalous has occurred: that God, in His Absolute Being, has resolved to be made manifest himself in a human life [...]. [The believer] must be scandalized by this, he must feel his mind reeling, the very ground giving way beneath his feet; he must at least experience that ecstasy of non-comprehension which transported Jesus' contemporaries.
-Hans Urs Von Balthasar
2 comments:
And Merry Christmas to you too, Bryan.
Thanks for the great quote.
You too brother!
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