GOD-BE-WITH-YOU. . .

‘God Bless You.’ ‘Godspeed.’ ‘God-Be-With-You.’ Historically these are three of the most common ‘God’ sayings. For many, the first is a blessing we offer in response to another person’s sneezing. The second is often a blessing offered to the person(s) who are leaving our home or for the person(s) who are about to depart on a journey. The third is offered to the person(s) who are suffering, or are in pain, or are dis-eased. This saying is rooted in a belief that God is a compassionate God.

How might we know if God is a compassionate God? For Christians the answer is affirmative: God is a compassionate God. The Christian’s affirmation lies in the reality of Jesus the Christ’s compassion; God’s compassion became ‘real’ and ‘visible’ to us; the word ‘compassion’ was made ‘flesh’ in Jesus the Christ.

Jesus told us to ‘Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.’ He was also ‘compassion in flesh.’ Jesus’ response to the ignorant, the hungry, the marginalized, the ‘lost,’ the blind, the lepers, the widows, the ‘unclean’ and the dis-eased was a compassionate response. For Christians, Jesus’ compassion affirmed that God is a compassionate God.

I have learned – am continuing to learn – that I have to be awake and aware and pay close attention to Jesus, his words, and his actions if I am going to begin to understand the mystery of God’s Compassion. I can misunderstand (I have indeed misunderstood) the miracle stories about Jesus as told in the gospels. When I simply reflect upon the miracles – the blind see, the lame walk, the dead rise, the dis-eased are healed – I can quickly become the voice of the cynic: ‘What about all those folks who were not healed – what about them? What happened to them? What was their response to the reality that they were not chosen as the ones to be healed?’ In a sense, it seems the cured actually added to the pain of those not cured.

On my good days when I find myself moving into the cynics’ stance I can grab myself by the collar and jerk myself awake. I can then remind myself that what is important is NOT the cure of the dis-eased; what is important IS the deep compassion that moved Jesus the Christ to act as He did.

There is an expression in the Gospels that helps me; Gospel scholars tell me that this expression appears only twelve times. It is used only in reference to Jesus the Christ or God the Father. This expression is: ‘to be moved with compassion.’ The scholars tell us that this powerful movement comes from the ‘gut’ (the Greek word is translated as ‘entrails’). The ‘gut’ is where our most powerful feelings reside. Jesus is moved so powerfully that He feels it in his guts; I have had this feeling and I don’t think I am alone when it comes to a deep ‘gut feeling.’ To say the least, a ‘gut feeling’ is not a superficial feeling that one can easily ignore – nor could Jesus.

The wonderful spiritual author, Henri Nouwen wrote: ‘When Jesus was moved to compassion, the source of all life trembled, the ground of all love burst open, and the abyss of God’s immense, inexhaustible, and unfathomable tenderness revealed itself.’

Jesus’ compassion was rooted in the deep gut-empathy He felt: He felt lost with the lost; he felt the hunger of the hungry; he felt the dis-ease of the dis-eased. Jesus chose to suffer as they suffered. He modeled for us what it means to ‘be compassionate.’ For us, the words ‘God-Be-With-You’ can also be manifested in the ways each of us choose to feel compassion in our guts. Then, we each have choice as to how we will put ‘flesh to words’ as we decide how we will demonstrate ‘being compassionate.’ Gentle reader: ‘God-Be-With-You.’