Classic and contemporary excerpts.
Unending gift
In the night when his people betrayed him—the night of intensest enmity—the dear Lord Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many.” Then! Can we comprehend the joining of two such extremes, the good and the evil together? In the night of gravest human treachery he gave the gift of himself. And the giving has never ceased. The holy communion continues today.
Walter Wangerin, Jr., in
Reliving the Passion
Sin’s opposite
We live under the illusion that if we can acquire complete control, we can understand God, or we can write the great American novel. But the only way we can brush against the hem of the Lord, or hope to be part of the creative process, is to have the courage, the faith, to abandon control.
For the opposite of sin is faith, and never virtue, and we live in a world which believes that self-control can make us virtuous. But that’s not how it works.
—Madeleine L’Engle in
Walking on Water
Nothing more to do
There are only two kinds of religion in the world.… You can list every “ism,” every cult, every religion in southern California under one category. They all say, “Do, do, do.” Only Christianity says, “Done.” Christ has done it all.
—J. Vernon McGee, from
The Best of J. Vernon McGee
Imprisoned by money
One sees what happens when the hearts of individuals, and of societies, become seduced by money. It is an ugly, but also a completely pathetic sight. Is it sane that one’s happiness should depend on the strength of the dollar, or the price of gold, or the mystic number of the Dow Jones index?… If money is our god, and money worries are allowed to be dominant in our lives, we shall always be the prisoner of our treasure.
—A. N. Wilson in
How Can We Know?
Shame On Selfishness!
Selfishness consists in dethroning reason from the seat of government and enthroning blind desire in opposition to it. Selfishness is always and by necessity unreasonable. It is a denial of that divine attribute that allies human beings to God and makes us capable of virtue. Selfishness dethrones reason and sinks human beings to the level of a brute.… It is a contempt for the voice of God within him, and a deliberate trampling down of the sovereignty of his own intelligence. Shame on selfishness! It dethrones human reason, would dethrone the Divine mind, and would place blind lust upon the throne of the universe.
—Charles G. Finney in
Principles of Love
Servant, not ruler
All good moral philosophy is but the handmaid of religion.
—Francis Bacon in The
Advancement of Learning
Long road home
The longest journey is the journey inward.… The road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
—Dag Hammarskjöld in
Markings
The word of truth
‘Twas God the word that spake it,
He took the Bread and brake it;
And what the word did make it;
That I believe, and take it.
—Attributed to Queen Elizabeth I
on being asked her opinion of
Christ’s presence in the
Sacrament
