Centenary of Von Balthasar's Birth

Today marks the 100th year after the birth of Hans Urs Cardinal Von Balthasar, one of the most prolific and noteworthy Catholic theologians of the 20th century, and reputedly, Pope John Paul II's 'favourite' theologian.

To commemorate this great man and thinker, I would like to share with you some of my favourite reflections from his book 'Grain of Wheat: Aphorisms':

“Christ’s love possesses the utmost tact. It knows how to combine the most intense demands with the most exquisite unobtrusiveness.”

“Humility is not a virtue but the realization that we lack every virtue…”

“Time is the revealer of love through its manifoldness, through its slow unfurling of millions of possibilities. Time is the fully unfolded intensity of love, since within Time love can take on the wonderful meaning of a story, of a process.”

“To live with another within the compass of one heart: I must move to the side, must make myself small, so that the other has space and does not feel crowded.”

“The multiplication of loaves is a symbol not only of the love of God but also of the love of neighbour: multiplication by lavish squandering is the natural image of every true love. In the end we collect infinitely more than there was at the beginning…”

“A truth has full resonance only when proclaimed out of the fullness of a lived tradition one has made one’s own.”