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.
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