Christian Quotes

Tournier: personal language

Saturday, September 24, 2016
Meditation:
Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
—Matthew 13:10-13 (ESV)

Quotation:
Those old Greek gods are not just poetry and legend. In them the Ancients personified living realities—intelligence, beauty, love, or lust, which are still at work in our hearts, and which fashion our person. The language they speak is that of image and myth, which touches the person much more directly than the explicit language of science and the intellectual dialectic of the modern world. It is also the language of the Bible, of the parables of Christ, which the rationalist of today finds it so difficult to understand, of the Word of God which demands of us not a discussion but a personal decision.

Paul Tournier (1898-1986), The Meaning of Persons, New York: Harper, 1957, p. 132 (see the book)
See also Matt. 13:10-13; 25:29; Luke 8:18; John 15:2-5
Quiet time reflection:
Lord, may I not shrink from the demands of Your parables. CQOD Blog email RSS
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