Quotes and Jottings

I'm finishing Metz' book A Passion for God, and I was reviewing the places where I put markers.  As I did, I knew I wanted to share them with you.   Herewith is my selective introduction to his work.

"If . . . the community is the locus for a guilt that has been recognized and acknowledged, then it must also prove itself to be the locus for taking on an undivided historical responsibility, a locus for the interest in universal justice and liberation." (p. 39)

"It is dangerous to be close to Jesus, it threatens to set us afire, to consume us.  And only in the face of this danger does the vision of the  Kingdom of God that has come near in him light up.  Danger is clearly a fundamental category for understanding his life and message, and for defining Christian identity."  (p. 48)

"Whoever hears the message of the resurrection of Christ in such a way that the cry of the crucified has become inaudible in it, hears not the Gospel but rather a myth.  Whoever hears the message of the resurrection in such [a] way that in it nothing more need be awaited, but only something confirmed, hears falsely." (p. 56)

"Could it be that there is too much singing and not enough crying out in our Christianity?" (p. 125)

"The traditions to which theology is accountable know a universal responsibility both of the memory of suffering. . . it always takes into account the suffering of others, the suffering of strangers.  Furthermore, this memoir . . . considers even the suffering of enemies and does not forget about their suffering in assessing its own history of suffering. . . . Respecting the suffering of strangers is a precondition for every culture; articulating others' suffering is the presupposition of all claims to truth.  Even those made by theology." (p. 134)

"What is really at stake is a fundamental theme of Christianity: a passion for God that encompasses the suffering and passion of those who will not let themselves be dissuaded from God, even when the rest of the world already believes that religion does not need God anymore."  (p. 151)

"One could almost say that Israel's election, its capacity for God, showed itself in a particular kind of incapacity: the incapacity to let itself be consoled by myths or ideas that are remote from history.  This is precisely what I would call Israel's poverty before God, or poverty of spirit, that Jesus blessed."  (p. 158)

Want more?  I'd start with his little early book, Poverty of Spirit.  It's all there.   If anything, his message is more timely now than ever; like climate change, we might have listened 50 years ago but chose to stop our ears. Unlike climate change, we can turn now without government action (or action by churches, for that matter).

Today, if you would hear God's voice, harden not your heart!