Deacon Gordon sent me a quote that I would like highlight. Please read the first comment on yesterday’s “Quote of the Day”, or read on below.
“Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or lofty ideas, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Deacon Gordon attributes this quote to Benedict XVI in his book on Jesus, so I assume the book is entitled, Jesus of Nazareth.)
This so nicely sums up what I was trying to say a few posts ago about “once meeting Jesus, I dare not turn my back on him.” An encounter with Jesus and his resurrection is decisive. It completely reorients one’s life.
Now I strongly suspect Pope Benedict does not agree with much of what Fr. Josef Fuchs S.J. taught in his moral theology, but Benedict’s thoughts, quoted above, do express one thing Fuchs was so clear about: That the encounter with God in baptism is so radically transformative that it orients one to a new “horizon”.
Being Christian is fundamentally about being in relationship with Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and oriented toward the Father who calls us to himself. All of this happens in the context of the Church, his body, of which we all share.
Thanks, Gordon!
