Читать книгу Naming the Unnameable - Dr. Rev. Matthew Fox - Страница 9

That God is love is found in the first Epistle of John in the Christian Bible (1 Jn 4.16) and in many other places including in St Paul’s shout out: “Who shall separate us from the love of God?….Neither death nor life, height nor depth, neither present nor future.” (Romans 8:35, 38) Meister Eckhart says: “Love is nothing other than God….In the same love in which God loves the Godself, God loves all things.”

God as love is found in other traditions as well such as in the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible and in the following teaching from the Muslim Sufi Rumi who says: “All the universe is born of Love—But where did this Love come from?” And again, “Lose your soul in God’s love, I swear there is no other way.”

Love causes the earth to tremble.

God said, ‘If not by pure love

How could I have created this world?

I have brought everything into existence,…

So you could know the glory of Love.’

To call God love can really be quite shocking since many people, in invoking the name of God, think of Judge or Potentate or stern Father or indifferent unmoved mover or cause of Fate. But that “God is love” represents a profoundly alternative direction for humankind. What kind of love? Love of forests? Of music? Of eating? Of children? Of lovers? The word “love” is such a broad word, especially in English, that it applies to so many things. But to say God is love is to render God omnipresent, omni-felt, part of everyday life—and of every day aspiration. For who does not aspire for love? To give love and to receive love? How great is love, how vast, how without limitation? Do all creatures love in some way?

Just today I read the story of a wounded dog, a Doberman named Khan, who after just four days into a new and adopted family with a 17-month-old baby saved that baby’s life by suddenly picking it up by its diaper and tossing it across the yard. At first the bystanders thought the dog was attacking the baby—until they realized the dog took sick very suddenly. Rushing it to the veterinarian they learned he had been bitten by one of the most venomous snakes on the planet—the Mulga—and Khan was near death for days as the vets struggled to save its life. Instead of killing the baby the dog saved its life, had intervened when he saw the snake approaching the tiny child, and put its own life on the line. As it turned out the dog lived. And the child too. Love among the animals. This too is love, this too is God present.