Quotes from Hans Urs von Balthasar

an affirmation of a paradoxical unity of ontological opposites, rooted in the Chalcedonian Understanding of the Person of Christ—"one individual or person subsisting in two natures, without confusion or change, without division or separation".

the Church and her exegesis of revelation progress through the ever-changing periods of world history. New aspects emerge, while others wane; efforts are made to compensate for one-sided emphases, but not rarely they are simply replaced with the opposite extremes. Today too, then, it is a duty to restate the principles in a new and timely way—while being as measured as possible—and in so doing to retrieve what is of permanent value.

Porque nadie puede caminar simultáneamente en todas las direcciones del amor otorgado a los santos: mientras uno investiga la altura, otro se sumerge en la profundidad y un tercero explora la anchura. Nadie puede elevarse por sí solo hasta la posición del Espíritu, del Hijo, del Padre: sólo la Iglesia como totalidad es la esposa de Cristo, y ello únicamente en la medida en que es el recipiente moldeado por Él para acoger su plenitud.

the connection between being and person that is expressed in the word hypostasis.

The man who follows Christ in full, who denies himself and and dies to himself and to the world, can never, ever be a "bourgeois.

We have seen how someone else has encountered the word of God, we have even profited by his encounter, but all the same it was his and not ours—and we ourselves have achieved nothing.

God does not only oppose the enemy of the divine from an external or superior standpoint, but also does the unthinkable: he exposes himself to Satan's fascination, in order to burst the dazzling bubble from within.

This paradox of a synthesis that unites creatures by distinguishing them and distinguishes them by uniting them—a paradox that can be found throughout the whole edifice of the universe—takes its origin in the most original relation of all things: their relation to God.

The heart of this relationship is that there is one universal presence (????????) of the cause of all that is, secretly and unrecognizably binding all things together, yet dwelling in each being in a different way; this presence holds the individual parts of the whole together, in itself and in each other, unconfused and inseparable, and allows them, through this very relationship of creative unity, to live more for each other than for themselves.81

Aristotelianism and the theology of Chalcedon enter here into an unbreakable alliance: they preserve the rights of nature against the rampages of an unchecked supernaturalism.

But then, in the midst of exile, there came promises of return, of a continuation of the interrupted history. There arose a vision of a mysterious person who would expiate the people's guilt on their behalf. And now Jesus' knowledge reaches beyond the "house left desolate", for he goes on: "You will not see me until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' Ã¢â'¬Â (Lk 13:35). 2.

He is not pestered by the banal desires common to all men; he is tempted by the greatest, the most momentous, messianic temptations; they must be met and overcome in the desert where Israel experienced them and later succumbed.

They try to reveal revelation to themselves. For the grace of the Holy Spirit never destroys the capabilities of nature. Just the opposite: it makes nature, which has been weakened by unnatural habit, mature and strong enough once again to function in a natural way and leads it upward toward insight into the divine.

God creates only one world. Human beings have spoilt the Creator's work, the Son has redeemed the old creation through his Cross, the Spirit has sanctified it. This one world will be enough for God in eternity, and for us, whom he has created, redeemed, and sanctified, this God will be enough.

seeks it for us, who have need of such illumination. So also the Word became flesh, not for himself, but rather to bring the mystery of the Incarnation to reality for our sakes.

As One and Unique, and yet as one who is to be understood only in the context of mankind's entire history and in the context of the whole created cosmos, Jesus it the Word, the Image, the Expression and the Exegesis of God.

And when Wisdom, the focal point of this divine involvement in the world, finally shone forth for Christian faith as the personal Word, the human Christ, all doubts about the possibility of a reconciliation between God and the world disappeared.

As One and Unique, and yet as one who is to be understood only in the context of mankind's entire history and in the context of the whole created cosmos, Jesus is the Word, the Image, the Expression and the Exegesis of God.

Beauty is the last thing which the thinking intellect dares to approach, since only it dances as an uncontained splendor around the double constellation of the true and the good and their inseparable relation to one another.

What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.

It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.

To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are.

Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.

Above all we must not wish to cling to our suffering. Suffering surely deepens us and enhances our person, but we must not desire to become a deeper self than God wills. To suffer no longer can be a beautiful, perhaps the ultimate sacrifice.