Attending to the World

"The encounter with God does not come to man in order that he may henceforth attend to God but in order that he may prove its meaning in action in the world. All revelation is a calling and a mission. But again and again man shuns actualization and bends back toward the revealer: he would rather attend God than to the world...
When you are sent forth, God remains presence for you; whoever walks in his mission always has God before him: the more faithful the fulfillment , the stronger more constant the nearness. Of course, he cannot attend to God but he can converse with him. Bending back, on the other hand, turns God into an object. It appears to be a turning toward the primal ground, but belongs in truth to the world movement of turning away, even as the apparent turning away of thise who fulfill thier mission belongs in truth to the world movement of turning toward."

- Martin Buber, I and Thou (Trans by W. Kaufmann)

Topic: Quotations, God; Judaism.