Christ's own 'God-forsaken-ness' on the cross showed me where God is present where God had been present in those nights of deaths in the fire storms in Hamburg and where God would be present in my future whatever may come.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the presence of God in suffering and despair, as exemplified by Christ's own suffering on the cross.
Jrgen Moltmann's quote encapsulates the idea that God's presence is most profoundly understood in moments of deep suffering and abandonment. By referencing Christ's experience on the cross, Moltmann emphasizes that during our darkest times, such as the tragedies in Hamburg, we can find solace in the belief that God is with us in our pain and will continue to be present as we face the future, no matter the circumstances.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a memorial service to provide comfort to those grieving.
As time goes on we become old, the future contracts, the past expands...But by future we don't just mean the years ahead; we always mean as well the plenitude of possibilities which challenge our creativity...In confrontation with the future we can become young if we accept the future's challenges.
Even the disciples of Jesus all fled from their master's cross. Christians who do not have the feeling that they must flee the crucified Christ have probably not yet understood him in a sufficiently radical way.
Totally without hope, one cannot live. To live without hope is to cease to live.
The turn from this end [despair] to a new beginning came from three things. A blooming cherry tree, the unexpected kindness of Scottish workers and their families, and the Bible.
Imprisoned professors taught imprisoned students free theology.
It is only when human beings see themselves simply as human beings, no longer as gods, that they are in a position to perceive the wholly other nature of God.
His overriding life necessity was not love, it was his profession…He had come to medicine not by coincidence or calculation but by a deep inner desire. Insofar as it is possible to divide people into categories, the surest criterion is the deep-seated desires that orient them to one or another lifelong activity. Every Frenchman is different. But all the actors the world over are similar.
And there you are on the shore, fitful and thoughtful, trying to attach them to an idea — some news of your own life. But the lilies are slippery and wild—they are devoid of meaning, they are simply doing, from the deepest spurs of their being, what they are impelled to do every summer. And so, dear sorrow, are you.
I urge you to read Eternal Treblinka and think deeply about its important message.
Total peace after death, becoming someone else, is the best hope I've got.
Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a riband to stick in his coat.
The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.
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