Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the complex nature of human existence, contrasting our biological aspects with our conscious identity.
In this quote, Peter Kreeft highlights the paradoxical nature of humanity. On one hand, we share basic biological functions with animals, such as breeding and dying; on the other hand, we possess a self-awareness and a unique ability to assert our existence, which distinguishes us from other creatures. This duality presents us as 'ontological oxymorons,' beings that embody contradictory characteristics, emphasizing the profound nature of human existence.
In practice
This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about what it means to be human.
Trusting God's grace means trusting God's love for us rather than our love for God. [...] Therefore our prayers should consist mainly of rousing our awareness of God's love for us rather than trying to rouse God's awareness of our love for him, like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:26-29).
Remembering the facts of death and Heaven gives us an even more pressing reason to learn to pray: We do not have an infinite amount of time. We are one day nearer Home today than we ever were before. I guarantee you that after you die you will not say 'I spent too much time praying; I wish I had watched more TV instead.'
The modern mind always tends to reduce the greater to the lesser rather than seeing the lesser as reflecting the greater.
Our soul, like Mary's body, is to receive God Himself if only we, like her, believe, consent and receive; if only we speak her truly magic word fiat, "let it be." It is the creative word, the word God used to create the universe.
Protestants believe that the sacraments are like ladders that God gave to us by which we can climb up to Him. Catholics believe that they are like ladders that God gave to Himself by which He climbs down to us.
One of the few things in life that cannot possibly do harm in the end is the honest pursuit of the truth.
Sometimes the story we're telling the world isn't half as endearing as the one that lives inside us.
For although a man is judged by his actions, by what he has said and done, a man judges himself by what he is willing to do, by what he might have said, or might have doneβa judgment that is necessarily hampered, not only by the scope and limits of his imagination, but by the ever-changing measure of his doubt and self-esteem.
Christianity is a lifestyle - a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into an established "religion" (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one's "personal Lord and Savior" . . . The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great.
There are no ordinary people.. it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.
Your body is woven from the light of heaven. Are you aware that its purity and swiftness is the envy of angels and its courage keeps even devils away.
[T]ruth is considered profane, and only illusion is sacred
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