Ps. 103:13, NIRV
Tenderness is an especially delicate idea, yet it is one that is of
immense importance in any love relationship—and this includes
the love between our God and us.
If we have little sense of God’s sacred tenderness for us, we are
also likely to have a greatly diminished sense of God’s immense love
for us. Any diminished sense of God’s love is a huge barrier in the
spiritual life. It will affect everything—cloud everything. Spiritual
directors know that if one does not have a growing, expanding
sense of God’s great love for us, it will cause everything else in the
spiritual life to be off balance. So in the spiritual life “God’s Love”
is Course 101, and it is a course we never leave behind. We
revisit it and deepen our understanding again and again![1]
God’s sacred tenderness
for us—a delicate expression of God’s
love—is a beautiful theme that we
find in the Bible. We will draw
attention to a number of verses that express this theme. As we first began to examine some of these
verses we also began to note a problem: often the delicacy and fervency of
God’s sacred tenderness gets lost in
translation.
We begin with an example found in the RSV[2]
translation of the Bible: “I [the Lord] led them with cords of compassion, with
the bands of love, and became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws .
. . ” (Hosea 11:4).
Is God’s sacred tenderness
here? Yes, especially in the first two
phrases. But what does that last phrase
mean? Something about compassion for
oxen apparently, but there’s not much sacred tenderness in that—at least not for us as modern people.
But then we discovered the newer NRSV, NRSVCE[3] translations and noted a change—indeed, a lovely change: “I led them with cords of human
kindness, with bands of love. I was to
them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.”
Yes! Here we have
something we can understand, and it is beautiful! It tells us a great deal about God’s sacred tenderness. But what a loss (previously) for people like
us who grew up in the days of the RSV—without
the array of translations we have today.
We see the same change in translation in the NIV.
In the copy of the NIV
that we own (2008), we read: “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck . . . ”
But then, when we look this same verse up on the internet (we
assume we find a later translation here), we read: “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties
of love. To them I was like one who
lifts a little child to the cheek. . . .” [4]
Here at last is clear sacred tenderness. (Certainly we understand
that translating from the Hebrew Bible into English—or any other language—is
a daunting task. That is not our main concern. Our only intention here is to mourn an
earlier loss and to reclaim all the sacred tenderness that we can find.)
We noticed the same pattern of loss and recovery when Lorraine
was in a Bible study of Isaiah—specifically
in chapters 40-55 (often called Second Isaiah). Lorraine ’s
participation in that class led to a number of dinner table discussions. Much of this focused upon loss and
recovery of sacred tenderness in
biblical passages. But even more
importantly: upon loss and recovery of God’s sacred tenderness in our lives and in the lives of those who look
to us for spiritual encouragement and love.
Note that in Isaiah 49, when the prophet wishes to offer the most
exquisite metaphor for God’s love that can be imagined, this is what we find: “Can
a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she
has borne? Though she may forget, I will
not forget you! See, I have engraved you
on the palms of my hands . . .” (Isa. 49:15-16, NIV).
Writing about these verses, John Sawyer says: "God's love for Zion [God's people] is more enduring even than that supreme example of human love [a mother's love], so that she [Zion] may be comforted after all, and at peace like a child in its mother's arms (Ps. 131:2, RSV).[5]
(Note: do pause to look up Psalm 131, RSV--the cross reference that Sawyer suggests above. Here the translation is especially beautifully, offering a precious example of God's sacred tenderness--again using the metaphor of a mother's love. We offer just one verse from that psalm: "But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother's breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul" [Ps. 131:2].)
Writing about these verses, John Sawyer says: "God's love for Zion [God's people] is more enduring even than that supreme example of human love [a mother's love], so that she [Zion] may be comforted after all, and at peace like a child in its mother's arms (Ps. 131:2, RSV).[5]
(Note: do pause to look up Psalm 131, RSV--the cross reference that Sawyer suggests above. Here the translation is especially beautifully, offering a precious example of God's sacred tenderness--again using the metaphor of a mother's love. We offer just one verse from that psalm: "But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother's breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul" [Ps. 131:2].)
Returning to Isaiah, we see that the prophet clearly does
not shy away from using a mother’s love in hopes of capturing something of the intensity and
tenderness of God’s love for us. It is a
pattern that Isaiah repeats a number of times.
(Note: we recognize that today discussion of neglected feminine imagery
in the Bible is an important theme in theologically based women’s studies. Women rightly feel that too often feminine
imagery had been neglected in discussions of biblical imagery in the past.[6] We are in sympathy with this concern. However, our main theme for today will be the
extra sense of “tenderness” that the prophet portrays; this includes maternal
and feminine images to describe the sacred tenderness of God’s love for us.)
We turn next to Isaiah 40:11: “He [the Lord] tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently
leads those that have young” (NIV).
Here we indeed find sacred tenderness. But John F. A. Sawyer,
who
wrote the commentary for the Bible study mentioned above, tells us
that
there is something additional that we might miss in Isaiah 40.
Sawyer notes that the imagery in Isaiah
40:9-11 contains “some
exceptionally beautiful, tender imagery, typical” of
Second Isaiah.
Isaiah addresses God’s
people by using the names “Zion ”
and
“Jerusalem ” (cities). Sawyer comments: “Cities are feminine in
Hebrew, and so the very grammar of the words has a tenderness
unattainable in
English.”[7] The spiritual director
in both of us
wants to cry out when we read those words: “tenderness
unattainable in English.” But that is exactly what the people we
work with most need! we say. We all need to know the almost
“unattainable”
tenderness of God’s love for us, and here it is—
an important part of it lost in
translation!
This pattern continues. We
learn that the Torah (first five
books of the Hebrew Bible) begins and ends with tender feminine imagery. Sawyer speaks of the “beautiful” image of “the ‘Spirit’ (a feminine noun) of God, hovering like a bird over the face of
the waters at the beginning of Genesis (1:2).”
And then in Deuteronomy, at the end of the Torah, we find similar imagery: an eagle “fluttering” tenderly
“over her young.”[8] Note this poetic translation of Deuteronomy 32:11-12: “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young,
spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the LORD
alone did lead . . .”; KJV. (And will lead us
as well!)
We return to Sawyer’s comment that the Torah both begins and ends with tender feminine imagery. Sawyer is speaking about a sign of tenderness
that would be largely lost in translation if commentators like Sawyer did not
retrieve it for us. (We need to be
excavating all the sacred tenderness
that we can. It is crucial to our
spiritual lives—to a deepening, foundational sense of being LOVED by God.)
We turn next to Sawyer’s commentary on Isaiah 42: 14-25, a
passage with an unusual metaphor for God faithfulness: comparison to a woman in
travail, giving birth, and yet all the while promising, “I will not forsake
them [my people or children]” (Isa. 42:16, NIV).
In relationship to this passage Sawyer says: “It is perhaps
significant that several words for ‘love’ and ‘compassion’ in Hebrew are
related to the word for ‘womb’ and have in them the concept of a mother’s
love.”[9] So again Isaiah is
using feminine imagery to express an especially tender, fervent, even enfleshed love (much like we say that
Jesus’ love is Incarnate, enfleshed
love). But how would the majority of us,
who cannot read Hebrew, grasp this? The
meaning is there, but much of this gets lost
in translation. Again, the spiritual
director in us wants to weep about loss of what we so desperately need.
Or consider Isaiah 46:3-4.
We find a clear expression of tenderness
here--in this case it carries us to the very end of our lives: “[You]
who
have been borne by me [your Lord] from your birth, carried from the
womb;
even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will
carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save”;
NRSV, NRSVCE.
Sawyer comments: “Old age, the other end of life, is just as much
in God’s hands as the beginning.”[10] If we allow it, sacred tenderness will carry us through all the way to the
end. And in this case it is biblical sacred tenderness that we can readily
understand—little interpretation is necessary.
Sawyer continues to speak of “God’s love for Zion ”
(God’s people--
us!) as he moves to Isaiah 54.
Here we read: “For the mountains may
depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart
from you ...” (v. 10, NRSV, NRSVCE).
In Isaiah 54 God is pictured as a husband (Isaiah uses every
loving image that can be found). Zion ’s
“husband will return and prove to her that he never stopped loving her . . . [H]is
love for her is described as, on the one hand, ‘great compassion’ . . . a warm, intimate word in Hebrew; and, on the
other hand, ‘everlasting love’. . . .”[11] So here we discover
another metaphor for God’s love, and we also learn that compassion is a “warm,
intimate word in Hebrew.” (Earlier we
learned that “several words for ‘love’ and ‘compassion’ in Hebrew are related
to the word for ‘womb’.”) How we need to
know about such “warm, intimate” love
and compassion; this must not be lost in
translation!
This is especially true when we read how often Jesus had compassion (and, of course, love) for the people he encountered. (And by extension—through the work of the Holy Spirit—this includes us.) We read of Jesus’ compassion or even tears:
e.g., for a crowd where many needed healing; for those without a shepherd or
guide; for the widow of Nain, who had lost her only son; for the bereaved
sisters of Lazarus; for the city of Jerusalem; or even for his own mother (see
Mk. 1:41; Math. 9:36, 14:14, 23:37; Jn. 11:33-36, 19: 26-27).
Even though the language switches from Hebrew to Greek in the
Gospel records, Jesus was steeped in the Hebrew Bible. The “warm, intimate” nature of “compassion”
would have been deep in Jesus’ bones—deep in his heart.
We turn to one last example in which Sawyer points out sacred tenderness that we should not
miss. In Isaiah 66 we find the imagery
of a mother “dandling” her child upon her knees: “As a mother comforts her
child, so I [the Lord] will comfort you; you shall be comforted . . .” (v. 13, NRSV).
Sawyer says verse 11, which describes the “abundance” of the mother’s
care, “has a moving tenderness in it, expressing delight ...” We see “the new found peace and security of
the children of Zion ” and also
“their [spiritual] prosperity and exquisite contentment.”[12] For they have found their place in God’s love
and care, in God’s sacred tenderness. This is the place all of us most need to find
for ourselves in moments of meditation/prayer when we rest safely in God’s lap,
so to speak. This will infuse and ultimately transform our
entire lives. Here is the kind of tender
comfort and foundation we each need to search and pray to find. May it
not be lost in translation! It
recalls the comfort and foundation God promised us in Isaiah, and the comfort and
foundation that Jesus so freely offers us.
Indeed, Jesus gives us
similar imagery: themes of “moving tenderness.” This is especially true in
Luke 15, where Jesus offers three parables of God’s loves; one is placed right
after the other (we are meant to get the message!). In the first parable one (of one hundred)
sheep has been lost. The shepherd (Good
Shepherd[13]) cannot rest but leaves the
ninety-nine and heads out into the wilderness, searching until he has found the
one that is lost. Then the shepherd “joyfully
take[s] it on his shoulders” and returns home, celebrating and rejoicing.[14]
(We pause for a personal
comment from Lorraine
In the second parable in Luke 15 Jesus uses feminine imagery (as had Isaiah): a woman, who is probably poor, as most women of the day were, has lost a precious coin. She searches diligently until she finds it. Then she calls her neighbors to rejoice with her. The lost and precious (a metaphor for us!) has been found.
In the second parable in Luke 15 Jesus uses feminine imagery (as had Isaiah): a woman, who is probably poor, as most women of the day were, has lost a precious coin. She searches diligently until she finds it. Then she calls her neighbors to rejoice with her. The lost and precious (a metaphor for us!) has been found.
In the third parable in Luke
15 a young son runs off to a “distant country” and squanders his life until he
is penniless and hungry. He decides to
return home to repentantly offer himself as a mere servant in his father’s
house. However, the father (Father) has been
waiting: “But
while he [the son] was still a long way off, his father saw him and
was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son ['an undignified act for a family patriarch'], threw his arms around him and kissed him ['tenderly'].”[15] The son is
offered a full measure of spiritual acceptance and tenderness.
We suggest that the reader dwell upon
God’s sacred tenderness in the days ahead—in scriptures such as those above,
in the company of those who love us, in the community of faith, which is very
much meant to be a community of love, or even in nature’s tenderness. (For example, today we see exquisite sun
shining—making diamonds upon mounds of snow: mounds that are filled with the
tracks of God’s small, busy creatures.) Let
scripture, uplifting readings, prayer and meditation, worship, nature, friends, etc. teach
you of God’s sacred tenderness. We each need
to pray that we would know more and more of it each day of our lives. It will make all the difference.
“[H]ere is something else I remember. And it gives me hope. The
LORD loves us very much”; Lam. 3:21-23, NIRV.
*
* *
We close with thoughts for meditation, prayer/poetry/proverbs:
“The Shepherd of Love (a Meditation)”
(With reflection upon 1 Pet. 2:25 and Ps. 23, 37:7.)
* * *
“The LORD is good to all; and his tender mercies shine over all
his works”; Psalm 145:9, JUB.
* * *
In all the tender things
of life,
we touch YOU
CHEEK
to cheek.
(With reflection upon Hos. 11:4; Ps. 104:3-4, 24-25.)
* * *
(And next, a meditation that came
out of the difficult personal
time Lorraine
italics, and blue in the prose segment above.)
“The Shepherd of 'TLC' (a Meditation)”
(With meditation upon Psalm 25, which speaks of God’s tender
loving care [TLC]: i.e., “tender mercies,” “lovingkindness,” and
care throughout [ASV, KIV, WEB]. Also with meditation upon
Lk. 15:4-32; Ps. 23; Isa. 40:11.)
* * *
And finally, simply reflecting upon lessons from the season:
“Messengers”
“They had opened the door . . . and found themselves
in a quite different world from ours . . . Narnia.”
- C. S. Lewis
This is my little bit of Narnia,
and here I come to shed the world’s haste.
Here snowdrops fall from heaven,
and footprints are the angels’—
angel bunny in the snow,
angel deer at the water’s edge,
messengers from a quiet world
that touches ecstasy,
messengers from another world—
with which this
is interlaced.
“This world acquires flavor only when a little of the other
[OTHER] world is mingled with it.” - Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Heschel [17]
* * *
(For another post that speaks of losses in translation, see "God's
'Extra-ordinary' LOVE WORD: 'Lovingkindness' ('Chesed') &
TLC." [18] )
…………………………
Notes:
1. We learned this essential truth the very first time we encountered Ignatian
spirituality (the spirituality behind the Jesuits and our training program in spiritual
direction). We thank Martha Rabaut, an IHM sister, for first introducing this idea
to us. However, this is a basic foundation behind the entire Jesuit or Ignatian
understanding of God’s revelation to us in scripture and especially in
Christ: We are Loved; all is based upon this! (“Course 101” is our way of
explaining this foundational truth.)
2. Revised Standard Version, RSV, copyright 1952.
3. Hos. 11: 4; New Revised Standard Version, NRSV, copyright 1989, 1993;
NRSVCE (Catholic Edition), 1991.
4. Hos. 11: 4; NIV: New International Version translation; see https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea%2011%3A4&version=NIV (here the last copyright date is
2011).
5. John F. A. Sawyer, Isaiah: Volume 2, “The Daily Study Bible Series” (Louisville,
KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1986), p. 126.
6. If one simply enters “feminine” and “Second Isaiah” or “maternal” and
“Deutero-Isaiah” into Google the rightful interest in this topic is readily seen. As one
example see Hanne Løland, “Gendered God-Language in Second Isaiah,” 2010:
www.academia.edu/4210083/_Gendered_God-Language_in_Second_Isaiah._
(Løland also offers helpful references).
7. Sawyer, Isaiah: Volume 2, p. 45.
8. Ibid., p. 69.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., p. 103.
11. Ibid., p. 152.
12. Ibid., pp. 218-219.
13. Jn. 10:11.
14. Lk. 15:5, The Jerusalem Bible translation, 1966 (JB).
15. Lk. 15:20, NIV [insertions from EXB and JB translations].
16. Meditations, prayer/poetry/proverbs by Lorraine B. Eshleman. (Note that
throughout this blog we often used shape forms--e.g., a heart to represent
the "Great Divine Romance of Heaven ..." for us, to be introduced
Even though we may borrow an idea from "shape poetry" here, we still
usually consider the selection to be either a meditation or prayer.)
17. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Earth Is the Lord's (New York: Harper
& Row, 1950), p. 80.
18. "God's 'Extra-ordinary' LOVE WORD: 'Lovingkindness' ('Chesed')
& TLC";
