Chris Geissler

“Lama Jigmé: Qu'entendez-vous par "personne" quand vous parlez de Dieu? S'agit-il d'une personne semblable à une personne humaine?

Dom Robert: On est ici au cœur de la réflexion philosophique et théologique chrétienne, et la notion de personne peut être source de nombreux malentendus si l'on n'en comprend pas le sense profond. Cette notion, qui deviendra si importante dans la théologie chrétienne, est issue du théâtre. Le mot "personne", *persona*, vient de deux racines latines: *per* (à travers) et *sonare* (donner un son). Dans le théâtre grec antique, les personnages portaient un masque dont une des fonctions était de faire porter la voix. Une "personne", au premier sens de l'étymologie, est quelqu'un qui exprime une parole adressé2 à quelqu'un d'autre; l'autre acception souligne ce qu'on voit du personnage. Le masque est à la fois porte-voix et visage, ce qui veut dire que la personne se manifest, sans jeu de mots, par la voix et par ce qu'on voit ! Toute relation interpersonnelle passe par le regard et par la parole. Pour les chrétiens, l'aboutissement de notre destinée est la vision face à face du Verbe, la parole de Dieu.”
― Robert Le Gall, Le moine et le lama

“we all make vows, Jimmy. And there is something very beautiful and touching and noble about wanting good impulses to be permanent and true forever," she said. "Most of us stand up and vow to love, honor and cherish someone. And we truly mean it, at the time. But two or twelve or twenty years down the road, the lawyers are negotiating the property settlement."
"You and George didn't go back on your promises."
She laughed. "Lemme tell ya something, sweetface. I have been married at least four times, to four different men." She watched him chew that over for a moment before continuing, "They've all been named George Edwards but, believe me, the man who is waiting for me down the hall is a whole lot different animal from the boy I married, back before there was dirt. Oh, there are continuities. He has always been fun and he has never been able to budget his time properly and - well, the rest is none of your business."
"But people change," he said quietly.
"Precisely. People change. Cultures change. Empires rise and fall. Shit. Geology changes! Every ten years or so, George and I have faced the fact that we have changed and we've had to decide if it makes sense to create a new marriage between these two new people." She flopped back against her chair. "Which is why vows are such a tricky business. Because nothing stays the same forever. Okay. Okay! I'm figuring something out now." She sat up straight, eyes focused somewhere outside the room, and Jimmy realized that even Anne didn't have all the answers and that was either the most comforting thing he'd learned in a long time or the most discouraging. "Maybe because so few of us would be able to give up something so fundamental for something so abstract, we protect ourselves from the nobility of a priest's vows by jeering at him when he can't live up to them, always and forever." She shivered and slumped suddenly, "But, Jimmy! What unnatural words. Always and forever! Those aren't human words, Jim. Not even stones are always and forever.”
― Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow

“Feelings are facts. Look straight at 'em and deal with 'em. Work it through, as honestly as you can. If God is anything like a middle-class white chick from the suburbs, which I admit is a long shot, it's what you do about what you feel that matters.”
― Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow

“It is our suffering that brings us together. It is not love. Love does not obey the mind, and turns to hate when forced. The bond that binds us is beyond choice. We are brothers. We are brothers in what we share. In pain, which each of us must suffer alone, in hunger, in poverty, in hope, we know our brotherhood. We know it, because we have had to learn it. We know that there is no help for us but from one another, that no hand will save us if we do not reach out our hand. And the hand that you reach out is empty, as mine is. You have nothing. You possess nothing. You own nothing. You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia