23 March 2011

Metanoia.


I discovered later, and I’m still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman, a righteous man or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one. By this worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously nor our own sufferings, but those of God in the world – watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith; that is metanoia; and that is how one becomes a man and a Christian. How can success make us arrogant, or failure lead us astray, when we share in God’s suffering through a life of this kind?
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Henryk Górecki, Symphony No.3, Lento e Largo. Tranquillissimo

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