Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, February 09, 2008


Whoever does not see God in every place
does not see God in any place.

- Rabbi Elimelech (of Lizhensk, I assume –
1717-86)


I can be pretty questioning and, well, often “weird” in my inquiry. (I don’t think I’m weird; I’m just giving you a chance to nod your heads knowingly. And by the way: whatever happened to “i before e except after c”?? Why is weird weird??) I find it helps me grow to “think outside the box”, as is said these days. I have a passion for appreciating that so much is hidden, that so much is a Mystery, that really we “know” so little. And the older I get, the more true this is. Anyway, I figure that if my Reflections were too disturbing, you’ve unsubscribed by now!

The good rabbi’s thought is challenging! For example, I believe that “God”, whether “God” exists existentially or because the human mind has created God for very good reasons, is Good. Period. I don’t believe in a God who does evil. It makes no sense. I don’t believe, therefore, in a God who punishes, in this earthly life or in Eternity. Life has its own natural consequences in terms of our behaviour and what we suffer.

So here is this morning’s take on Elimelech. “God” is always on our side, on everyone’s “side”. Which is not to say, of course, that God can be co-opted for our own personal manipulation. As an example, God loves the soldiers of all armies or the members of all football teams or all politicians equally. God only desires ( re the Bible) that we “should repent and be saved”, meaning that we be transfigured into Love. God wants us to be happy - and we won’t be as long as we wander from the path of Transfiguration. To be transfigured is our destiny.

God is never absent. So the Psalmist (and the good rabbi) understood. Remember the lovely phrases of Psalm 139: “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand hold me fast.” If we don’t believe that God and we are inseparable, journeying together in power and grace towards the wonder of Being, through both the suffering and the ecstasy, then God will be seen in no place.

Which is why Jesus said, “Love your enemy”. If we can’t see God there, there is no God to be seen.

Brian+