Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
But the saints are never the kind of killjoy spinster aunts who go in for faultfinding and lack all sense of humor. (Nor should the Karl Barth who so loved and understood Mozart be regarded as such.)For humor is a mysterious but unmistakable charism inseparable from Catholic faith, and neither the "progressives" nor the "integralists" seem to possess it - the latter even less than the former.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humor is an essential part of faith, and true believers embrace joy rather than negativity.
This quote emphasizes that genuine spirituality and faith should be accompanied by a sense of humor and joy. It criticizes those who approach religion with a critical and joyless attitude, asserting that humor is a vital expression of faith that connects believers with deeper truths, and suggests that certain groups within the faith may lack this essential quality.
Themes
HumorFaithJoy SpiritualitySaints
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon, you might say, 'Remember, even the saints were not without humor, for joy is part of our faith.'
More from Hans Urs Von Balthasar
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A truth that is merely handed on, without being thought anew from its very foundations, has lost its vital power.
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The first attempt at a response: there must have been a fall, a decline, and the road to salvation can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite.
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Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests, leaving it to its own avarice and sadness.
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