Thank you for a clarifying lecture, Fr. Brendan. Not having read all of Balthasar on the subject, I would tend to agree with you that the center of his thought on the subject of the beauty of revelation is: "Revelation itself is the foundation of a dialectic, of ever-increasing range and intensity, between event and vision [understanding of the event], in which the element of the tremendous, inherent in the event itself, nevertheless overwhelms the person contemplating it and then to such a degree that he is left with no alternative except a return to simple discipleship, and this in turn brings a new sense of being overwhelmed, but at a deeper level." Without reading all of Balthasar, I know the statement's truth from experience, and it is the basis of my thinking of what heaven is, and what we must do to attain it - that our lives provide us the chance to attain as deep a level of vision as we want. And that beatific vision is heaven and is set at our physical death.,
But I do disagree with your manner of indicating the Way - that the Cross is beautiful. Standing alone, without expression of the idea that the real intent of the Cross - the full demonstration in the Resurrection that love alone is credible - suggests masochism as a way to heaven. And sadism and insensitivity to the troubles of others follows from that. Christ's life, which seems to lose importance in such a focus on the Cross, opposes the idea that we should leave our fellows to get to heaven by way of suffering. He continually gave His "congregation" tastes of heaven and encouraged them NOT to sin (a cause of suffering), but to ease the suffering of others. I believe that Balthasar meant to say that the beauty of the intent of the Cross is contrasted with the absolute repugnance of the thoughts of those who would victimize Christ - or anyone else - in that way. Christ was exquisitely aware of these and knew them to be ignorance parading as divinely sanctioned authority. He meant to expose them - as Simeon said - for the evil they were, and are today. Now that the Church as gotten away from burning heretics, it should focus more on the evil of the thoughts that killed Christ, and many others throughout time, and point the way to the beauty of compassion and cooperation with our fellows.
Thank you for a clarifying lecture, Fr. Brendan. Not having read all of Balthasar on the subject, I would tend to agree with you that the center of his thought on the subject of the beauty of revelation is: "Revelation itself is the foundation of a dialectic, of ever-increasing range and intensity, between event and vision [understanding of the event], in which the element of the tremendous, inherent in the event itself, nevertheless overwhelms the person contemplating it and then to such a degree that he is left with no alternative except a return to simple discipleship, and this in turn brings a new sense of being overwhelmed, but at a deeper level." Without reading all of Balthasar, I know the statement's truth from experience, and it is the basis of my thinking of what heaven is, and what we must do to attain it - that our lives provide us the chance to attain as deep a level of vision as we want. And that beatific vision is heaven and is set at our physical death.,
But I do disagree with your manner of indicating the Way - that the Cross is beautiful. Standing alone, without expression of the idea that the real intent of the Cross - the full demonstration in the Resurrection that love alone is credible - suggests masochism as a way to heaven. And sadism and insensitivity to the troubles of others follows from that. Christ's life, which seems to lose importance in such a focus on the Cross, opposes the idea that we should leave our fellows to get to heaven by way of suffering. He continually gave His "congregation" tastes of heaven and encouraged them NOT to sin (a cause of suffering), but to ease the suffering of others. I believe that Balthasar meant to say that the beauty of the intent of the Cross is contrasted with the absolute repugnance of the thoughts of those who would victimize Christ - or anyone else - in that way. Christ was exquisitely aware of these and knew them to be ignorance parading as divinely sanctioned authority. He meant to expose them - as Simeon said - for the evil they were, and are today. Now that the Church as gotten away from burning heretics, it should focus more on the evil of the thoughts that killed Christ, and many others throughout time, and point the way to the beauty of compassion and cooperation with our fellows.