Why does faith still have any chance at all?… Because
it corresponds to the nature of man…. Man possesses an inextinguishable
aspiration, full of nostalgia, for an infinite. None of the attempted answers
will do; only the God who himself became finite in order to tear open our
finitude and lead us into the wide spaces of his infinity, only he corresponds
to the question of our being. That is why, even today, Christian faith will
come to seek out man again.
Joseph Ratzinger
Now, with our failing muscles,
with our exhaustion, with our propensity for melancholy, with this strange
masochism that life tends to favor nowadays, or with this indifference and
cynicism that life produces nowadays as a way of avoiding the suffering of an
excessive and unwanted fatigue, how could we ever accept ourselves and others
in the name of a discourse? We cannot sustain love for ourselves unless Christ
is a presence, as a mother is a presence for her child. Unless Christ is a
presence now – now! – I cannot love myself now and I cannot love you now.
with our exhaustion, with our propensity for melancholy, with this strange
masochism that life tends to favor nowadays, or with this indifference and
cynicism that life produces nowadays as a way of avoiding the suffering of an
excessive and unwanted fatigue, how could we ever accept ourselves and others
in the name of a discourse? We cannot sustain love for ourselves unless Christ
is a presence, as a mother is a presence for her child. Unless Christ is a
presence now – now! – I cannot love myself now and I cannot love you now.
Luigi
Giussani
Giussani
(quoted from the Communion & Liberation Christmas poster, 2009)