Can we really be faithful when we are so ignorant of the future and what it may bring? May we not- in fact, must we not – hold ourselves fundamentally open to the new that will change everything we have known up to know? Can and may we entrust ourselves once and for all to the other when we do not even know who we are ourselves and who we shall one day be? Can we trust the world when no one knows what terrors or what new opportunities it has in store for us?
In one form or another we encounter these questions again and again today. All of them give expression to a misunderstanding of truth and a profound mistrust of it. The human being appears to be ultimately the plaything of fate and its unknown possibilities incapable of resting secure in the Yes of his freedom. This attitude is, to be sure, justified – is, in fact, the only one possible – if there is no God. For in that case the future really is incalculable, one’s own and that of the world. But if there is a God, then we can accept ahead of time all the unforeseeable parts of God’s plan. In that case there will be nothing that is not in God’s hands. In that case, what is certain will always be stronger and greater than what is not certain, for what is certain is that God exists and that his love is greater than all the powers of history.
In that case, it will be true that neither death nor life nor any other power will be able to separate us from Christ (cf. Rom 8:38-39). Because God is unchangeable, we can remain confident and, in doing so, can grow to our fuill stature. That is why we have no need, in advance, of a God-like purview of the future and a God-like freddom in order to make definite decisions. For then we will know all we need to know and can accept the way through time as our way of becoming mature and free. Only thus are human decisions and human confidence possible. Only if there is a God can man continue to be man.
From: Zeitfragen und christlicher Glaube, pp. 48-49
