God consoles us, so that we may console others.

Today we begin reading Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth.

We have some beautiful and consoling words from Paul.  But they are also words of challenge and mission.

“We have a gentle Father, who is the God of all compassion, who encourages us in all our sorrows, so that we can offer others, in their sorrows, the encouragement  that we have received from God ourselves.”  

παρακαλῶν = literally means "to call to one’s side."  The metaphor can be associated with two images.  

First is an image drawn from battle: and is translated like we have today com-fort (to strengthen), en-courage (to give courage).  The image is to have your back in a battle.  

The second image is that of a parent: and is translated as con-sole (with soothing or with tenderness).  The image is of a gathering a child up to your side after he has fallen or been hurt, to sooth them.  

This second meaning is clearly what Paul has in mind.  Our God is not a wrathful Zeus-like figure, or a dispassionate Ultimate Cause, but a gentle Father, who knows our life.  He knows our joys and sorrows.  He knows our good days and bad days.  Knows when we are a bit scraped up. And he soothes us tenderly in any of those circumstances.

And connected to that, in fact inseparable from that, is our mission. 

 

εἰς τὸ = so that.  He soothes us so that we can sooth others in their distress.  Which means knowing the joys and sorrows of other people.  Knowing when they are having a good day or a bad day.  And gathering people to our side when they need it.

Our gentle God’s care for us in inextricably connected to our care for others.  They are the same thing.  They require each other.  If we refuse to love others we cut ourselves off from fully experiencing the love of God.  And if we refuse the love of God, we find ourselves unable to love others freely and generously.

God’s care for us gives us enough freedom to see the needs of others, and to try to meet them.

And in comforting others, we deepen our understanding of God’s care for us.

To be called to the side of the Father, means to call others to our side.

When I was discerning becoming a Jesuit, I was being directed by a saintly Benedictine monk who asked me, “Are you worried about whether or not you will be fulfilled, happy, loved?”  I answered, “yes.”  And he said, “You have to become what you want to receive.  You have to become love to receive love.  So ask yourself,” he said, “what you need to do to become love, and you will see your path to fulfillment, happiness, holiness.”  

His words gave me the courage to become a Jesuit.  

But they are true for all of us.