Does Jesus Know Us? Quotes

“It is as if the fact that God is light, penetrating and manifesting everything, is so absolutely important that darkness and bondage can and must exist for the light’s sake. Perhaps he even permits the culpable bondage we spoke of earlier to exist for this reason. It is as if, as the Revelation of St. John portrays it, the infinite black smoke which rises from the mouth of hell, darkening the air and the sun (Rev 9:2), is only permitted so that, ultimately, God’s immaculate light may shine all the more brilliantly.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“The three messianic temptations at the start of his public life, which on the face of it he conquered masterfully, took place when he was weak: he met them after his forty days’ fast in the wilderness, “and afterward he was hungry” (Mt 4:2). Instead of fortifying himself he weakens himself in view of the encounter with Satan, for he must be able to taste the full attack of demonic temptation in order to know its true power and plausibility. This christological locus vindicates Paul’s maxim: “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10).”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“In the case of the former priests this “weakness” was their own sinfulness. Consequently they had to offer sacrifice for their own sins as well. In Jesus’ case it cannot be his own sin, otherwise his self-sacrifice for his brothers would have been less than total; yet he must experience weakness in temptation, the danger of demonic enticement, the difficulty of clinging to God’s will, if he, the doctor, is to gain the necessary knowledge of the human situation which calls for healing.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“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.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“We must carefully avoid drawing false conclusions here. We cannot say that Jesus, instead of the sinner, is “punished” by God. Nor can we say that he feels “damned” by God and placed in “hell”. For we associate the state of “hell” with a hatred of God. It would be meaningless to ascribe to the Crucified the slightest resentment toward God. But it is quite possible to speak of the Son of God suffering what the sinner deserved, i.e., separation from God, perhaps even complete and final separation. It”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“Theories like this try to show that Jesus’ attitude to sinners was nothing other than a demonstration of the reconciled attitude God had already shown towards the world’s guilt. But what sense would this make of the many stern words of judgment in the mouth of Jesus? And what of the whole terrible drama, the tragedy of the Old Covenant between Yahweh and Israel? What of the departure of God’s glory from the Temple, and the angel, with fire from God’s throne, setting it in flames? Was all this a pure misunderstanding, corrected by Christ’s Father-God? Would not this bring us back to Marcion’s anti-Semitic gnosticism, in which the God of the Old Testament was an inferior demon? Surely the Bible is a unity?—especially in view of the continuity from the great prophets, Job and the “Servant” to the Cross of Christ. Certainly the Cross is concerned with Jesus’ “solidarity” with sinners. But this word, so much in vogue today, is much too weak to express the whole depth of the identification taken on by Jesus. The truth of sin (particularly when it is seen as the lie) must be realized somewhere in the iron ruthlessness implied by the sinner’s “No” to God and God’s “No” to this refusal. And this could only be realized by someone who is so truthful in himself that he is able to acknowledge the full negativity of this “No”: someone who is able to experience it, to bear it, to suffer its deadly opposition and melt its rigidity through pain. We”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“Did the Redeemer so identify himself with his brothers, the sinners, that he will not distinguish himself from them in the presence of God, with the result that, like a lightning rod, he draws the judgment of God—a judgment upon the reality of opposition to God in the world—on to himself? Let no one object that the notion of an angry God is archaic and obsolete since a loving Father has given his Son for the world’s sake (Jn 3:16; Rom 8:32). Nothing hinders God, who loves the sinner, from being angry on account of the sin he hates.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“It is as if the fact that God is light, penetrating and manifesting everything, is so absolutely important that darkness and bondage can and must exist for the light’s sake.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“The person whose house has been cleared of demonic influence retains an uncanny susceptibility and vulnerability. Care must be redoubled, for the “unclean spirit” wanders through waste places and finds no rest; it forces its way back into its former habitation and “finds it empty, swept and put in order. Then he goes and brings with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first” (Mt 12:43 ff). The person to whom Jesus has said “Go and sin no more” (Jn 8:11) must be supported until he is sufficiently established in his new freedom. But”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“But there is also a depth-psychology which can discover in physical sickness a spiritual guilt, a person’s covert acquiescence in being bound by the “strong man” in such a way that he cannot break free. Here Jesus starts by loosing the spiritual bond: the first thing he says to the lame man who is set before him is: “My son, your sins are forgiven you,” and only after his power to forgive sins has been called into question does he utter the second word (which was in principle included in the first): “Rise, take up your pallet and go home” (Mt 2:5, 11). To the sick man by the pool, whom Jesus knew to have been “lying there a long time”, he gave this admonition: “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you” (Jn 5:6, 14). The”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“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.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“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!’ ” (Lk 13:35). 2.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

“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.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, ¿Nos conoce Jesús? ¿Lo conocemos?

“El creyente vive desde la resurrección (a la que fundamentalmente le ha conducido el bautismo) mirando a la cruz, pero vive también desde un estado de crucifixión cotidiana con la mirada puesta en la resurrección.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, ¿Nos conoce Jesús? ¿Lo conocemos?

“Del mismo modo que no podemos «comprender» una melodía hasta que no se extingue su última nota, y juntándolas todas reconstruimos en nuestra memoria su unidad original, así tampoco podemos comprender el acontecimiento de Cristo en su totalidad más que mirándolo desde la resurrección.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, ¿Nos conoce Jesús? ¿Lo conocemos?

“A quien se le ha dicho: «Vete y no peques más» (Jn 8, 11), es preciso acompañarle hasta que se encuentra suficientemente fortalecido en su libertad.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, ¿Nos conoce Jesús? ¿Lo conocemos?

“«Desde un principio se contiene en la revelación la respuesta a cualquier pregunta que pueda preocupar al creyente». Así puede resonar (en 16, 23) la panorámica del final de los tiempos: «En aquel día no me preguntaréis ya nada».”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, ¿Nos conoce Jesús? ¿Lo conocemos?

“Dios no se enfrenta sólo a lo antidivino desde fuera o desde arriba, sino que se da la situación inaudita de que se expone a su fascinación para pinchar desde dentro el deslumbrante globo de colores. O por mejor decir, utilizando el símbolo de Jonás, para matar desde dentro al monstruo devorador.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, ¿Nos conoce Jesús? ¿Lo conocemos?