Quotes about Christ

Forgive me for these rather personal ramblings, but they just came to me as I thought about our time together recently. And after all, we do have an interest in each other. I still have a hard time thinking that you really find all these ideas of mine completely mad. Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself.

There was only one reality, and Christ was Lord over all of it, or none.

It is a question of the freedom of God, which finds its strongest evidence precisely in that God freely chose to be bound to historical human beings and to be placed at the disposal of human beings. God is free not from human beings but for them. Christ is the word of God's freedom.

The Church is in the world, it is part of the suffering in the world, and though Christ condemned the disciple who struck off the ear of the high priest's servant, our hearts go out in sympathy to all who are moved to violence by the suffering of others. The Church condemns violence, but it condemns indifference more harshly. Violence can be the expression of love, indifference never. One is an imperfection of charity, the other the perfection of egoism.

Worship has been misunderstood as something that arises from a feeling which comes upon you, but it is vital that we understand that it is rooted in a conscious act of the will, to serve and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unbelievers are not the enemy—they are people for whom Christ died. We need to remember we were each one of them once.

The full concept of discipleship includes sharing our faith, leading people to Christ, and helping them to mature in their faith. But somewhere along the line, the church has separated evangelism from discipleship.

It is the most fundamental reason why each of us exists. Scripture calls it "abiding in Christ" (John 15:4; cf. 1 John 4:16). God's desire is for us to participate in his own eternal love and life and therefore in his own eternal joy and peace by dwelling in the Son.

The central mark of a maturing Christian, and of a maturing congregation, is that they increasingly love others as Christ loves them.

Our central job is not to solve the world's problems. Our job is to draw our entire life from Christ and manifest that life to others. Nothing could be simpler—and nothing could be more challenging.

The crucified Christ, in short, gives us the "Magic Eye" to discern him in the depths of even the most horrifically violent portraits of God.

The most important anchor, and therefore our "greatest help and blessing," St. Teresa noted, is the fact that in Christ God became a man, hence someone we can concretely envision in our minds when we pray.