Monday, December 15, 2008

To be fully incarnated . . .

Hans Urs von Balthasar:
An either-or between Christ and Mary is as impossible as an either-or between Christ as the head and the Church as his body. If Christ is artificially detached from his Mother or his Church, he loses his historical believability in Christian devotion; he becomes something abstract; he becomes one who falls down from heaven like an aerolite and then goes back up without having become rooted concretely in the past or future tradition of human beings.
To be a Catholic is to understand these two sentences and to affirm them.

1 comment:

Kevin said...

Gil,
This quote from von Balthazar seems to be in answer to a question which we don't have here. Would you mind, if time in your schedule allows, explaining what question he was answering?
I know of the "Historical Jesus" movement. Is there something similar vis-a-vis Mary of which I'm unaware?
Thanks Gil for your patience with my ignorance on this one.
Ad Astra Per Aspera,
Kevin