It is, finally, a word is untimely in three different senses, and bearing it as one’s treasure will not win one anyone’s favours one rather risks finding oneself outside everyone’s camp... Beauty is the word that shall be our first.

In this passage von Balthasar is arguing that “beauty” is an unfashionable or “untimely” word—one that does not easily fit the reigning intellectual or ecclesial camps and may even alienate those who prefer more immediately “useful” categories (such as ethics, politics, or technique). Yet he insists that beauty must be recovered as a primary theological and philosophical starting point: it is not decorative, but disclosive—beauty draws, awakens desire, and makes truth and goodness compelling. To place beauty “first” is to claim that the radiance or splendor of what is real (and, for him, ultimately of divine revelation) is what initially seizes the human person and opens the way to deeper understanding and commitment.