God defines himself as "I am who I am", which also means: My being is such that I shall always be present in every moment of becoming.
Hans Urs von BalthasarThus it is necessary to commence from an inescapable duality: the finite is not the infinite.
Hans Urs von BalthasarHer (Mary's) Son first had to be the Child of the Father in order then to become man and be capable of taking up on his shoulders the burden of a guilty world.
Hans Urs von BalthasarThe first attempt at a response: there must have been a fall, a decline, and the road to salvation can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite.
Hans Urs von BalthasarFaith means the fundamental response to the love that has offered itself up for me. It thus becomes clear that faith is ordered primarily to the inconceivability of God's love, which surpasses us and anticipates us. Love alone is credible; nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed. This is the achievement, the 'work' of faith: to recognize this absolute prius, which nothing else can surpass; to believe that there is such a thing as love, absolute love, and that there is nothing higher or greater than it.
Hans Urs von Balthasar