Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Advent

Careful not to override human freedom with a self-revelation so overwhelmingly undeniable that no faith was required for its recognition, nor to couch that revelation in so esoteric a way that it would elude the "little children" and humble who would be in the best position to recognize it, Christ came, as Kierkegaard said, to woo humanity like a suitor, not to command allegiance like a conqueror. The inner beauty would shine through the ordinary and the wretched like the still small voice whispering to Elisha.

Blaise Pascal:
It was not right for Christ to appear in a fashion obviously divine and able absolutely to convince everyone; but nor was it right for him to come in a fashion so hidden that the could not be recognized by those who would sincerely seek him. He wanted to make himself perfectly knowable by them, and so, to appear revealed to those who seek him with all their heart, and hidden from those who evade him with all their heart, he tempers our knowledge of him, by making the stamp of who he is visible to those who are seeking him and not to those who are not.

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