5:00 a.m.

“Why did Jesus of Nazareth do the things he did? What was happening to the world when he sat down to eat with a sinner or gave himself over to the cross? Christian theology ruminates over such questions because they are so richly and imponderably mysterious. The theologian who explores the full reality of Jesus Christ is journeying through strange country.”

Mark McIntosh, Christology from Within: Spirituality and the Incarnation in Hans Urs von Balthasar (U. of Notre Dame Press, 2000).

And here’s a fine essay on von Balthasar: http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/jcihak_hubapol_may05.asp