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PAGE 5—April 12,1973
God—The Holy One!
“BUT PERHAPS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE
to the modern Christian is to affirm the transcendence
of God above what often appear to be real gods for
men. Technology, social and political forces, and
(NC Photo)
ingrained injustice and prejudice seem to permeate and
dominate men’s lives.” Men are dwarfed by the massive
form of the nuclear power plant they are building in
Germany.
BY BROTHER JAMES P. CLIFTON, C.F.X.
“Holy, holy, holy Lord.” These familiar words of the prophet
Isaiah express one of Israel’s and Christianity’s central beliefs
about God. He alone is holy. Unlike his creatures he is
unaffected by imperfection and sin. But his holiness means
more than this. He is sinless and perfect because he is
completely separate from everything created; he is transcendent,
totally “other.”
How did Isaiah and others arrive at this conviction of God’s
holiness? As with so many ideas about God, the process took
repeated revelations by God in the history of his people,
revelations which men had to reflect upon and come to express
in language however inadequate. The idea of God’s “otherness”
was in a sense the end of such a process.
The pages of the Old Testament indicate that Israel came to a
realization of God’s “otherness” only after she began to
understand his presence and involvement in her life. Through
acts of power, especially in the Exodus, God was recognized as
having a power “other” than the powers and forces of this
world. His values and ideals were superior to those attributed to
other gods or proposed by even the noblest of men. Everything
he did, commanded and promised transcended human
expectations and speculation.
In time, the men of the Old Testament could reflect that God
was present before this world even came into being. He stands
above history and life as all-powerful and provident. His ways
and thoughts are not those of men, and compared to all other
gods he alone is real.
These convictions, however, did not come without doubt and
some reluctance. Frequently, Israel wished that her God were
less, so that he might demand less. In subtle and crass ways, men
sought to shape God to their own image and likeness. They tried
to control, bribe and even threaten him. But through his actions
and through the words of leaders, prophets and sages, he kept
before his people the notion of his untouchable and unrivalled
holiness. He would not be like other gods.
Finally, in Jesus Christ God affirmed dramatically his
“otherness.” Once again men were called upon to see beyond
the limited and finite presence of Jesus a sign of the
transcendence of divinity. It was not easy to do, but then it
never had been. Men were asked to accept a Father and a
kingdom not of this world, to seek after a life that was eternal
and untouched by death and to live according to an ideal that
only a holy God could propose.
In our day, belief in the holiness of God is no less challenging
than it was in Old Testament times and in the lifetime of Jesus.
Men are still inclined to draw God down to their own level-to
equate his values with theirs, to associate him with their own
causes and schemes and to seek to bargain with him in return
for their fidelity and faith.
But perhaps the greatest challenge to the modern Christian is
(All Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1973 by N.C. News Service)
‘I Am the Guide, the Sovereign of the World’
BY FATHER CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
An ancient Jewish legend describes how Abraham first came
to the awareness that there is a God who cares about the world.
The story compares Abraham to a traveler who sees a
magnificent palace ablaze with fire. “Is it possible that there is
no one who cares for the palace?” the man wonders. To his
surprise the owner of the palace looks out at him and says”: “I
am the owner of the palace!”
So, the story goes, Abraham wondered as he looked about at
the world: “Is it conceivable that the world is without a guide?”
The Holy One, blessed be he, looked and said: “I am the guide,
the sovereign of the world.”
The story is recounted by the great Jewish scholar Abraham
Heschel, who died last December. It is recalled by Heschel’s
colleague, Fritz A. Rothschild in the marvelous tribute to
Heschel in the March 10, 1973 issue of AMERICA Magazine. As
interpreted by Heschel the rabbinic legend about Abraham’s
discovery of God is a striking example of Heschel’s own life and
The Return of Satan
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
Strange. A decade ago many Catholics referred to the term or
notion of Satan, the devil in almost apologetic tones. “A
medieval concept,” some might remark, but hardly relevant in
this modern, enlightened age.
We found the prayer of exorcism in our older baptismal ritual
too harsh. Driving the devil out of a sweet, innocent infant
seemed a bit much and priests either winced as they read the
words or omitted them entirely.
Moreover, the minor order of exorcist was administered
quietly in seminary chapels and no future priest really expected
ever to use his newly bestowed powers. In fact, I think the
majority of us in those days wondered why the Church retained
this office.
Current developments in today’s society, however, makes us
wonder if we didn’t rid ourselves of Satan too easily and if we
haven’t dismissed the presence of the devil.
A few years back, the movie “Rosemary’s Baby” made
viewers shudder. More recently, novelist William Blatty’s best
seller, “The Exorcist,” gripped readers attention, keeping them
up late at night until they finished his eerie tale about a
possessed young girl in the Georgetown district of our nation’s
capital.
These may be dismissed as fictional stories. But what cannot
be so facilely explained are the unfortunately frequent instances
of evil in this world of ours. A college chaplain friend of mine
senses this harmful presence in his work with students-the swift
corruption of innocent freshmen, the slavery to drugs, the
casualness about abortion, the negative peer pressure so hard for
a well-intentioned, yet immature person to resist. One need not
look far to see similar illustrations.
Then, too, we witness a rapid spread of satanism and a revival
of interest in the occult. A Time cover story (June 19, 1972)
with the heading “Satan Returns” reads like some church
history book, but the setting, sad to say, is now, not centuries
ago. In a nearby community college, another
priest-friend-chaplain speaks from firsthand knowledge of a
young man’s attempt to preach LaVey’s “The Satanic Bible.”
No wonder Pope Paul of late has uttered strong words about
a personal devil or spirit of evil. “A living, spiritual being, which
is perverted and perverts. A terrible reality and mysterious and
fearful. This hidden and distrubing being truly exists and, with
unbelievable cunningness, still is at work. He is the hidden
enemy who sows errors and disasters in human history.”
The revised rite for Baptism continues that former prayer of
exorcism, although in modified form. “Almighty God, you sent
your only Son to rescue us from the slavery of sin . . .we now
pray for these children who have to face the world with its
temptations, and fight the devil in all his cunning . . .
After reading a little and listening a bit about Satan’s return, I
think my own personal proclamation of this liturgical text may
have a new meaning and added power. Similarly, the baptismal
rejection of Satan and profession of Faith take on new light in
the view of contemporary trends.
I think we must be careful when giving the devil his due to
give Jesus his due as well. He remains the Lord of and over all.
As the exorcism prayer concludes: “Your Son died and rose
again to save us. By this victory over sin and death, bring these
children out of the power of darkness. Strengthen them with
the grace of Christ, and watch over them at every step in life’s
journey.”
thought. It is suggestive, too, of what the Jewish tradition can
share with us as practical guidance for our catechesis about God.
Heschel notes that in the Hebrew version of the story the
word used for “ablaze with fire” suggest two dimensions of
human experience. The first meaning of the Hebrew word
(doleqet) is “illuminated,” “full of light.” In that sense the
story implies that Abraham came to recognize the presence of
God by sensitively seeing the luminous beauty of the world
around him. A second meaning of the same word is, “in
flames,” suggesting that Abraham sensed the presence of the
same caring God in the horrors that are part of human
experience.
As Heschel interpreted the story, Abraham did not sit down and
rationally reason out proofs for the existence of God. Abraham
“saw” and “wondered” at the things and people in his world.
His seeing and wondering opened his mind and heart to
recognize the Holy One looking out at him from the world
about him. The key to Abraham’s discovery is a sensitive
perception of the mystery of this world in reverence and awe.
Reverence and wonder before the majesty and misery of human
experience on this earth allows one to perceive the presence in
life of the Holy One-God, who totally transcends all logical
categories and definitions.
Heschel wrote in another place that “a return to reverence is
the first prerequisite for a revival of wisdom, for the discovery
of the world as an illusion to God.” One looks for God by
opening his eyes to the world on all its sides, in all its
dimensions, in an attempt to see reality anew, sensing its
mystery, wondering at its beauty and its ugliness. An inner
attitude of respect, of reverence allows one to see the world as
an “allusion to God,” a place in which one can meet the Holy
One. Reverence makes possible a sensing of God’s presence in
one’s daily experience.
Abraham Heschel shared with us the profound experience of
his own life and of the rich Jewish heritage he so deeply loved.
His insistence on reverence for things and people as the first trail
leading to God echoes the moving stories of the Bible-which
Heschel called the second trail leading to God. One thinks
readily of Moses removing his shoes and bowing to the ground
before the burning bush (Ex. 3: 1-7), of the Israelites standing
in awe before the thunder and lightning at Sinai (Ex. 19:16-25),
of Elijah sensing God’s presence in the quiet breeze (I K. 19:
12), of Job sitting in silence before the mystery of suffering in a
wonderful, beautiful world (Job 38-42), of the Psalmist struck
with wonder at the sight of the moon, stars, and man (Ps. 8).
As Christian educators, whether we be parents, pastors or
religion teachers, we can be grateful to Heschel for bringing
more sharply to our awareness the valuable Jewish experience of
discovering the all Holy within the heights and depths of human
experience. One of our major tasks as religious educators is to
help others see more sensitively, more appreciatively our
world-at once “full of light” and “in flames.” The ability to
look at life reverently, with wonder at its mystery, is the first
step in sensing God’s Presence. Reverence, especially as
illuminated by the Bible may enable us to see God looking out
at us from the world, and to hear the Holy One saying to us: “I
am the guide, the sovereign of the world.”
to affirm the transcendence of God above what often appears to
be real gods for men. Technology, social and political forces,
and ingrained injustice arid prejudice seem to permeate and
dominate men’s lives.
Men and nations appear to have unparalleled and even
unlimited power. To find God amidst this pantheon and to
assert his separateness from it all may not be easy. But it is
precisely in these circumstances and experience of men that
God calls for a reaffirmation of his holiness.
God Is All
BY FATHER QUENTIN QUESNELL, S.J.
Who is God? By what name shall we cail him? How can
human words express what human minds cannot comprehend?
God is beyond our thinking and our talking.
That is why a high point in the history of revelation was
marked by God’s answer to Moses’ question: “If the Israelites
ask me, “What is his name?” what am I to tell them?”
God replied, “I AM WHO AM.” Then he added, “this is what
you shall tell the Israelites: ‘I AM sent me to you.’ ”
Now “I AM” is not a name. The One who uses it of himself is
Reality and Presence beyond naming. He is. He is there. He
causes to be. But names are for lesser beings, for the creatures
he has made.
Creatures must be distinguished from one another. He need
not be distinguished from other things, for he is not one among
them. He is not a part of the universe, requiring a separate name
to mark him as distinct from all the rest. He simply is.
You do not add God up as one item among others or even
one more Person on a complete census. He is that One about
whom you are always talking if you are saying anything true
about reality. He is “behind and beneath and around and above
and within” whatever is.
Other things have each its own name, and we talk about them
as we understand them. The more we talk, the better chance we
have to grasp them from all their sides. We understand God
better in silences. The more we talk, the more danger there is of
losing touch with him altogether.
The Bible could have taken the expression with which God
answered Moses and turned it into a name: “He who is;” “He
who is present;” “who causes to be.” The letters for that in
Hebrew would be Y H W H. The Bible does have those letters
often. They seem to make a word. But in the religious biblical
tradition, no one ever heard or spoke that word. God cannot be
named.
When reading the Hebrew Bible, when one comes across this
“sacred four-letter,” one’s lips and voice substitute “the Lord”
or “the Name.” The word itself is never pronounced, lest one
find oneself trying to put a name on God.
Naming something, after all, pins it down, makes it somehow
ours. A name defines and characterizes something for us and
puts it at our disposal. We can never do this with God.
Most English Bibles, older and newer translations alike,
follow the practice of the Hebrew Bible. They print THE
LORD, all in capital letters, for us to read instead of Y H W H.
(The “Jerusalem Bible” does turn the sacred four-letter into
the name “Yahweh.” And some people turn it into “Jehovah.”
Both practices miss the biblical point. They make it sound as if
a certain “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” could be added to the list of
“Zeus and Ashtarte and Baal and the other gods.” The usage is
very offensive to many people.)
Homework papers from Jewish students sometimes show
another way this spirit of reverence can be kept in English.
Instead of writing even the word “God” as a name, they put
“G-d” or “G_d.” The blank space in the middle shows again
that the one true God cannot be named.
These are all ways of confessing that God is what some
theologians call “the totally Other.” Whatever you can name,
God is not. Anything you can think of is not God. A recent way
of showing approval and admiration was the expression: “It’s
something else!!” God is always “something else.” The moment
you think you really have him, you have just passed him by.
One word that we use especially of God sums up all these
ideas. That is the word “holy.” The root meaning behind it in
Hebrew is “separate,” “apart.” That which is over there, while
we are over here. That before which we are filled with awe and
overcome by fear and trembling because it is so amazingly
absolutely different.
In this series of articles about various titles which the Bible
applies to God, we shall say some very intimate things about
him, following his own revelation about himself. But here at the
beginning of the series, we have to recall that God’s first title,
“the Holy One,” means he is that “totally Other” whom we can
never name.
(NC Photo by George P. Koshollek)
“BUT NAMES ARE FOR LESSER BEINGS, for the
creatures he has made. Creatures must be distinguished
from one another.” Looking similar, but not the same,
a Peking duck (left) and a white mute swan share a
swing.