(For some reason the the italics font setting would not go off on the previous post. So, here's the remaining few excerpts)
[R]eceptive indifference becomes the all-decisive criterion:in the form of the courage to say Yes in every instance to every word of God that may affect my life. Of all things, defenselessness and, from the natural human perspective, weakness (and, last but not least, anxiety) now become the essential prerequisites for Christian fortitude. Right where I become serious about baring my heart and my life, the real power (which is not mine but God's) radiates most purely.' (p. 154)
Ever-increasing defenselessness is an ever-increasingly open stance toward God and for God, and hence an ever-increasing influx and indwelling of God's power in man. No one is as unarmed and exposed as the saint is toward God, and therefore no one is as ready to be deluged by every anxiety; yet this is the quintessence of courage and armament--by God....And inasmuch as the Church represents God to him--concretely in her office and in her love for these men--his openness to God becomes in him an openness to the Church; it becomes ecclesial obedience. That is the decisive test of whether his courage is Christian, for 'the Mameluke, too, shows courage.' (p. 153)
Christ's 'flock' is never at any time Nietzche's "herd"; being in the Church is based on choice and decision...And God never denies his attributes in those who are his light in the world. They shine like the stars in the cosmos, 'innocent...[and] without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation' (Phil 2.15), and even their anxiety, if God allows it, bears the marks of their divine destiny.
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