Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
It is, finally, a word is untimely in three different senses, and bearing it as one's treasure will not win one anyone's favours; one rather risks finding oneself outside everyone's camp... Beauty is the word that shall be our first.
Interpretation
Beauty is a complex and often misunderstood concept that can alienate those who do not appreciate it.
In this quote, Hans Urs Von Balthasar reflects on the multifaceted nature of beauty and its timing in human experience. He suggests that holding on to the concept of beauty as a prized possession can sometimes lead to isolation, as it may not resonate with everyone, and can even result in being excluded from collective human connections.
In practice
In a discussion about art, this quote could highlight the subjective nature of beauty.
Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.
It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.
A truth that is merely handed on, without being thought anew from its very foundations, has lost its vital power.
The Holy Spirit knows what a particular age's most pressing need is far better than men with their programs.
The first attempt at a response: there must have been a fall, a decline, and the road to salvation can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite.
But the saints are never the kind of killjoy spinster aunts who go in for faultfinding and lack all sense of humor. (Nor should the Karl Barth who so loved and understood Mozart be regarded as such.)For humor is a mysterious but unmistakable charism inseparable from Catholic faith, and neither the "progressives" nor the "integralists" seem to possess it - the latter even less than the former.
We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories.
I have always been and will be an enemy of communism, but I love all people.
There are many, many nouns for the act of looking - a glance, a glimpse, a peep - but there's no noun for the act of listening. In general, we don't think primarily about sound. So I have a different perspective on the world; I can construct soundscapes that have an effect on people, but they don't know why. It's a sort of subterfuge.
Suddenly, as rare things will, it vanished.
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.
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