“…A paradox, you probably already know, is a statement which is seemingly self-contradictory; a statement which appears to be false, but which, upon careful examination, in certain instances proves to be true… Spirituality is a paradox…let me pass on what I consider the four paradoxes… we surrender to win…we give away to keep…we suffer to get well…we die to live.” (Fr. Bogdan Djurdjulov)
“…Christian life is filled with paradoxes, what the Holy Fathers referred to as antinomies: conflicts between two principles, laws or truths that seem equally valid. An example would be “bondage to sin” and “freedom in the Spirit,” both of which accurately describe the Christian person…Another would be the affirmation, “Through the Cross, joy has come into the world!”...Each of these pairs, read through the lens of ordinary logic, seems irreconcilable. We cannot be both slave and free; joy cannot be the emotion accompanying a hideous execution; and we can hardly remember what has not yet happened. In the light of the Gospel, however, these make perfect sense.” (Fr. John Breck)
“ …we focus too much on the fears and anxieties of the world. We focus on trying to save our lives through the securities and protections of the world. But Jesus says in the Gospel lesson. "What does it profit a man to gain the world but forfeit his life? For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and the sake of the gospel, will save it." Christ is saying that we find true life, we discover the meaning of life, when we are ready to lose our lives for a greater cause. It's a paradox, and unfortunately, not too many people are ready to follow it.” (Fr. Luke Veronis)
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” The paradox of our relationship to God is that obedience in our relationship to Him does not enslave us – but sets us free. It is the same as the paradox of the Cross. Christ said of the Cross, “No man takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own self” (John 10:18). Our own salvation can be no different. No one can take our life from us – we must lay it down of our own self. We lose our life in order to find it. We lose a false self in order to find the true. The saint is the most free of all human beings. What a strange wonder.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Grand paradox. The bible says, “when I am weak then I am strong” (2Cor12:10). The 12 Step programs say that when I admit my powerlessness, then I am in position to truly turn my life and my will over to God as I understand Him. And in my powerlessness is my strength.” (Albert S. Rossi, PhD)
“We are uncomfortable with paradox. Paradox is a concept that in our post-Enlightenment secular age, we have a hard time grasping. A paradox always feels like a problem to be dissected, a riddle to be solved…though our trust and confidence in God may seem paradoxical at times, it isn’t ever baseless. God’s goodness and His love are evident everywhere, if we but have the eyes to see.” (Father Barnabas Powell)
“…it takes time and growth to gain the wisdom to see things more clearly. I think of it like going into a dark room at night with no artificial lights. Your eyes eventually adjust to the darkness and you can make out shapes and maybe see some things in the room. But as the sun slowly rises and increasing amounts of light come through the window, you see more and more until at last you can see everything clearly.” (Sacramental Living Podcast)
“Grace that it is the gift of God’s own presence and action in His creation. The Scriptures repeatedly point out that God is omnipresent. We can trust we are never outside of His love and grace. However, it is paradoxical that though God is never separate from us, we can separate ourselves from Him by our choice to consciously reject Him through our thought and/or behavior.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Sacramental Living Podcast)
“Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ. Sadly, too often we hear those words and are not able to apply them to how we live on a day-to-day basis…No matter what the circumstances, no matter how much we mess up, no matter how many powerful forces there are that would try to damage our relationship with Him, God will be there for us with His love.” (Foundation Study Bible, Romans 8:38-39)
“No matter what happens to us, no matter where we are, we can never be separated from his love.” (Life Application Study Bible, Romans 8:35-36)