'...the truth comes. It encounters us in an unexpected form, not with trailing clouds of glory and dazzling clarity, but as the crucified truth, as the crucified Christ. And the truth speaks to us. It says to us, "Who has crucified me, the truth?" And in the same moment it answers itself, "See what you have done. You have hated the truth of God. You have crucified it. And you have set up your own truth. You believed you knew the truth, you possessed it, you thought to make men happy with your truth and thereby you made yourself into God. You have robbed God of his truth and proclaimed your own truth instead - but you have thereby ruined yourself by playing God and with that comes destruction. You have crucified truth."
And if we find this mystery too difficult for us to understand, listen to what the truth says more clearly: You are living as though you were alone in the world. You have thought to find within yourself the source of truth, which can only be found in God. For that reason you hate the other person who does the same. You found in yourself the center of the world and this is the source of the lie. You saw your brothers as part of your personal kingdom, lording it over them and not seeing that you and they live by the truth of God. Your tear yourself out of communion with God and your brother and you think you can live alone. You hate God and your brother and think you can live alone. You hate God and your brother becasue they deny the truth. That was the lie and you are therefore liars through and through. Your wish to be alone, self-sufficient, and your hatred of others - that is the lie. For that reason you crucified God's truth. You thought you would become free if you tore away and hated the truth. But you have become a slave, a slave of your hatred and your lies.'
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Edwin Robertson (Ed.), Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christmas Sermons, p.69.
