Expressing the Inexpressible

By Jo Young, based on notes by Dr. Joan Lenardon, former professor of Church history at St. Peter's Seminary, London, ON. Joan teaches the religious studies course, "Women in the Christian Tradition at Brescia College, London.

A CNWE Perspective

The equality we seek eludes us and will be beyond us until the images and analogies most commonly used for God in the Catholic liturgy are enriched with less commonly used Scriptural images such as:

Divine Wisdoml, a womb², a mother³, a bear robbed of her cubs⁴, a woman making bread⁵, a woman searching for a lost coin⁶, Word⁷, rock of salvation, key and door.

The experiences of "absolute mystery present and active in the world ....are articulated as words pointing to God"⁸ But all of the names, images and stories that are used are only analogies. God is essentially incomprehensible. "The knowing of God [is] accomplished in an analogical process."⁸ The basic understanding is that the reality of God is beyond human speech; concepts and names. Images and descriptions and are but comparisons created by human perceptions.

It is the "androcentric character of traditional speech" about God that is at the centre of women's concern with traditional God ? talk. Women's refusal of the exclusive claim of the white male symbol of the divine arises from the well?founded demand to adhere to the holy mystery of God, source of the blessing of their own existence, and to affirm their own intrinsic worth... Language about God in female images challenges the literal mindedness that has clung to male images in inherited God?talk; it questions their dominance in discourse about holy mystery. Such speech calls into question prevailing structures of patriarchy."⁹ It is politically threatening, for as long as God?talk remains exclusively masculine, the recognition of their equality will elude women.

Canadian Bishops' Perspective

Various aspects of the language dilemma were recognized by the Canadian Catholic Bishops in their 1994 publication, National Bulletin on Liturgy, "Language and Silence," The bishops explain that while the words of our liturgical celebrations attempt to "name, describe and foster our experience of the Holy One, ...we are dealing with Mystery, the mystery that is the human person, the mystery that is God; the mystery of our mutual relationship. Furthermore, we try to do this in ways that will satisfy not only individuals, but the entire community ? particular liturgical assemblies and the entire church around the world.

"Addressing women using male language denies women their own identity. It suggests that women are secondary, submissive, invisible and not truly or fully human. When women are not named specifically they are essentially excluded from full participation in liturgy and the church. This diminishes the church; it is a problem for the whole church, men and women alike."¹¹ The bishops point out that the so?called generic language that purports to include women in the word man" and the pronouns "he" and "his" has been discredited by studies of the history of language.

These studies show that:

• the concept of generic language, together with its individual terms was defined by men; women were never consulted.

• it was based on a view that women are inferior to men and it is proper for women to be subsumed under men.

• it was a convenience for men who are writing and doing business; in some respects it is also a relatively recent phenomenon. For example, it was only in 1850 that the British Parliament made the generic use of masculine pronouns legal for the sake of commerce."¹

The bishops also tell us that the use of inclusive language in liturgical texts is not new. Language that explicitly names women as well as men has a long, if sporadic history in the church. The bishops conclude that "to refer to women using masculine language is seen by many to be unjust and innacurate....Today we seek to use [inclusive language] widely and consistently."¹² Unfortunately, these initiatives of the Canadian bishops have not received support from the Vatican where inclusive language in their new catechism was rejected.¹³

More problematic for the bishops are the forms of address used for God. The bishops agonize over how God is to be named, spoken about, spoken to. One has to speak, yet one is faced with the inadequacy both of our language and our perception. They admit that taking the masculine language customarily used too seriously or if that language is too narrow and limiting, there can be a temptation " to a kind of idolatry".¹⁴ They assert that God is beyond all measure and beyond all human description. The Eastern church has used a negative approach to language about God with prayers like "Lord our God whose might is ineffable, whose glory is inconceivable, and whose love toward mankind is unutterable [God]...who art from everlasting invisible, inscrutable, ineffable, immutable..."¹⁵

The Roman Sacramentary "includes [only] the following attitudes and qualities in the addresses of its prayers:

• God is all powerful...creator, eternal… ever present, holy, unchanging and unseen.

• God is our guide, light, protector, redeemer, saviour, shepherd, source of blessings and source of light.

• God is comfort, compassion, conciliation, freedom, goodness, holiness, life, light, l
love, peace, providence, truth and wisdom.

• God is the Father in heaven, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of the lowly, Father of all God of all gifts, God of our Fathers and God of the living and the dead."¹⁶

Scripture and Tradition

It may be noted that none of the female images for God found in scripture are listed above. They are not used in any of the liturgies of the church although they may appear in hymns.

For example, the female eagle that "stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up and bears them aloft on its pinions" is compared to the God who guided Jacob in Deuteronomy."¹⁷ Wisdom, the Greek Sophia, of Proverbs is anthropomorphised as a woman: "Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding, for her income is better than silver and her revenue better than gold...She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her..."¹⁸

The God of Isaiah speaks as a woman in labour: ~I will cry out like a woman in
labour, I will gasp and pant...[and] Listen to me of the house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb...Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb...As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you."¹⁹ Hosea's God is "like a bear robbed of her cubs."²⁰ Female images of God occur in the parables of Jesus in the New Testament. God is compared to a woman and the kingdom of heaven, her yeast and again, God rescuing a sinner is likened to a woman searching for a lost coin²¹ Jesus Christ would gather the children of Jerusalem together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.²² Peter admonishes Christians to "long for the pure, spiritual milk" which is presumably from God.²³ The Holy Spirit descends "in bodily form, like a dove" which, of course, could be either gender.²⁴

In medieval times, even the second person of the Trinity, Christ Jesus, was pictured both as mother and father as in St. Anselm's prayer to St. Paul.²⁵

"And you, Jesus, are you not also a mother? Are you not the mother who, like a hen, gathers her chickens under her wings? Truly, Lord, you are a mother; for both they who are in labour and they who are brought forth are accepted by you."

Translation and Feminist Theology

The significance of the word Lord is explained as a translation of the Jewish Adonai which is used to render the sacred, unpronounced divine name, YHWH. The restrictions against using the Hebrew divine name have not carried over into Roman Catholic hymns where congregations sing of Yahweh. Priests for Equality, whose publications include The Inclusive New Testament and The Inclusive Psalms, have translated the Divine Name as "'Our God," both to stress the relational aspects of God in covenant with humankind and to respect Jewish sensitivity to pronouncing the Name."²⁶ With regard to Jesus' use of the term Abba, Father, Elizabeth Johnson points out that this is one among very many images that Jesus uses for God. "Critical biblical scholarship adds that while it is historically most probable that Jesus sometimes addressed God with the Aramaic Abba, the paternal metaphor is not nearly as frequent nor as central as a literal reading of the text might suggest."²⁶ Word count shows that the frequency with which Jesus calls God "Father" increases with the date of the Gospel manuscripts. This has led James Dunn to conclude that "it is scarcely possible to dispute that 'here we see straightforward evidence of a burgeoning tradition, of a manner of speaking about his relation with God which became very popular in the last decades of the first century."²⁶ It is a matter of theological development in the early church rather than abundant use by the actual Jesus who lived. Both Elizabeth Johnson and Priests for Equality agree that the significance of the use of Abba by Jesus is to make clear the intimacy of his relationship with God. Jesus' Abba is not a patriarchal figure, "who can be used to legitimate forms of oppression"²⁶ In fact, Priests for Equality substitute Abba God for "the father" in their translation to de?emphasize the idea of fatherhood and to stress intimacy of relationship. Their terms for Jesus also "stress relationship rather than hierarchy." ²⁶ They use Only Begotten, Firstborn, God's Own to express Jesus relationship to the Godhead.²⁷ In conclusion, it seems that expressing the inexpressible has called forth the most creative, life?enhancing metaphors and is continuing to do so as human spirits experience and appreciate more and more of the wonders of the divine. Among these are the images of the following prayer:

O Thou, the Breath, the Light of A11, Let Thy light create a heart?shrine within. And Your counsel guide 'til oneness guides all. Your desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms.

Grant what we need each day in bread and insight. Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others faults . Don't let surface things delude us, But keep us from unjust acts.

To you belongs the caring mind, the life that can act and do, the song that beautifies all, and can from age to age renew. In faith we will be true. Amen²⁸

Endnotes

1. Proverbs I ? Vl11

2. Isaiah XVI.9

3. Isaiah LXVI:13, Numbers Xl:12?13, Deuteronomy XXXII: 18

4. HoseaXI11: 8

5. Luke X111:20?21; Matthew X111:33

6. Luke XV:8?10

7. John 1:1?2

8. Johnson, Elizabeth. She Who Is. Crossroad Publishing Co.,370 Lexington Avenue, New York.1997 p. 113

9. ibid., p.5?6

10. C.C.C.B., National Bulletin on Liturgy, "Language and Silence" V. 27 #137, Summer 1994

11. ibid., p.76

12. ibid. p. 77

13. Commonweal Foundation 1994 "The Vatican has withdrawn the permission it gave just two years ago for use of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (NRSV) in the liturgy, including the readings at Sunday Mass. In October, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) said that the NRSV translation was unacceptable for liturgy (and catechetics) because of its use of inclusive language. An unnamed official explained: "If you say 'men and women' [instead of `man'] you are immediately dividing man into two, which may not be the point. You may want to stress the unity." On the other hand, substituting "humanity" for "man," he explained, "tends to make the text abstract" [CNS]. That means "man" is just right.

14. ibid. p. 84

15. ibid. p. 84 from Isabel Florence Hapgood, Servicebook of the Holy Orthodox?Catholic
Apostolic Church .5th edition. Englewood, NJ 1 983. pp 81 &1 01

16. C.C.C.B., National Bulletin on Liturgy, "Language and Silence" V. 27 #137, Summer 1 994. p. 85

17. Deuteronomy XXX11:18

18. Proverbs 111

19. Isaiah XLII: 14,15; XLI:3,4; XLIX:14,1 5;LXVi:13

20. Hosea X111:8

21. Luke X111:20,21 and Matthew X111 33; Luke XV: 8?10

22. Luke X111:20,21 and Matthew X111 33; Luke XV: 8?10

23. 1 Peter 11:2,3

24. Luke 111:22

25. Anselm (1070) The Lord of the Journey . ed.Roger Poolev

26. The Inclusive New Testament. Priests for Equality. Brentwood, Maryland.1996, introduction

27. Johnson, op. cit. pp. 80, 81

28. from Prayers for the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus. Translation and
Commentary by Neil Douglas?Klotz. Harper and Row, 1990 )