Posted on 05/20/2016 8:31:08 AM PDT by Salvation
Words, while an important part of our toolset, can also get in the way of reality. But how can we live without them? On some level we must allow a deep level of language to help us in sorting out reality; words are something that help us to form a mental picture. In particular, we sometimes turn to metaphors and extended metaphors (parables, allegories, stories, etc.).
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two different things are equated for rhetorical effect. It can be used to provide clarity to something unfamiliar by comparing it to something familiar, or to point out hidden similarities between two unlike things. The word comes from the Greek metapherein (meta (beyond) + pherein (to bear or carry)) meaning “to transfer,” or, more literally, “to carry something beyond.”
A metaphor often seeks to capture something deeper by comparing it to something that is more easily grasped. In the metaphor “All the world’s a stage,” Shakespeare takes a deep concept (the world (or life)) and frames it in the context of something more manageable (a stage). This is not to say that a stage is precisely the equivalent of the world, but rather to capture some truth about the world and highlight it for understanding.
Similarly, stories can be used to communicate what is complex or to some degree inexpressible, by relating memorable experiences that disclose truth. Good stories often convey many complex truths at once. The best stories use surprise, irony, conflict, or some combination thereof to convey truth and wisdom in a memorable way.
Stories and metaphors can expose a unity between seemingly unlike things that exists beneath the surface level. On these deeper levels, things often shift, surprise, and even amuse us. Not everything in life is as it first appears; God does not easily fit into a convenient little box. Stories and metaphors can open windows onto wider vistas and expose deeper mysteries.
With this background in mind, consider the following stories. There is a wide collection of such stories from both the Rabbinic tradition and the Desert Fathers. The saints, too, have supplied us with many. The following selections are somewhat random as I drew them from various sources. Many of them were taken from The Spirituality of Imperfection: Story Telling and the Search for Meaning. They are a rich stories of the magnificent and mysterious reality called life.
In each case, the “story” is presented in bold, black italics. I have limited myself to very brief comments, shown in plain, blue text.
When the disciples of the Rabbi Baal Shem Tov asked him how to know whether a celebrated scholar whom they proposed to visit was a true wise man he answered, “Ask him to advise you what to do to keep unholy thoughts from disturbing you in your prayers and studies. If he gives you advice, then you will know that he belongs to those who are of no account.”
Not all things have a solution. God sometimes allows things to happen in order [to] test us and He asks us to live with difficulties. If there really were a solution to the problem of distraction and temptation, spiritual teachers would long ago have provided it. Therefore, those who claim some insight into this common human problem are of little account.
2. When the Rabbi Bunam was asked why the first of the Ten Commandments speaks of God bringing us out of the land of Egypt, rather than of God creating heaven and earth, the Rabbi expounded, “‘Heaven and earth!’ Then man might have said, ‘Heaven—that is too much for me.’ So God said to man, ‘Look, I am the one who fished you out of the mud. Now come over here and listen to me!’”
We often relate first to earthly things and then to higher spiritual matters.
3. A woman sought out a confessor of long experience. In her confession she recounted the behaviors that troubled her. She then began to detail how these behaviors seemed somehow connected with her experience of having grown up in an alcoholic home. At that point the grizzled veteran confessor reached out and, gently patting her hand, asked: “My dear do you want forgiveness or an explanation?”
Some people confuse confession and spirituality with therapy. Therapy offers explanations; confession seeks mercy and forgiveness.
4. Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends everything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees (St. Gregory of Nyssa).
Too often our certitude is rooted not in God or in true faith but in our own thoughts. Our thoughts can become idols and we can become ideologues. Wonder is able to bring us to our knees in humility and gratitude. Wonder opens us to all that God has done. Blind adherence to ideology can close us in on ourselves and our own limited thoughts.
5. The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for his supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus to Diogenes, “If you would learn to be subservient to the king, you would not have to live on lentils.” Said Diogenes in reply, “Learn to live on lentils, and you will not have to be subservient to the king.”
This is analogous to our serving of this world and our consequent slavery to it.
6. A man of piety complained to Baal Shem Tov, saying, “I have labored hard and long in the service of the Lord, and yet I am little improved. I’m still an ordinary, ignorant person.” The rabbi answered, “You have gained the realization that you are ordinary and ignorant, and this in itself is a worthy accomplishment.”
Humility, reverence for the truth about ourselves, is the door.
7. One day some disciples of Abba Besarian ceased talking in embarrassment when he entered the house of study. He asked them what they were talking about. They said, “We were saying how afraid we are that the evil urge will pursue us.” “Don’t worry,” he replied, “You have not gotten high enough for it to pursue you. For the time being you are still pursuing it.”
Too often we determine the cause of our problems to be the devil, when, more truly, it is our own flesh.
8. The priest put this question to a class of children: “If all the good people in the world were red, and all the bad people were green, what color would you be?” A young girl thought hard for a moment, then her face brightened, and she replied, “I’d be streaky!”
We are all a mixed bag, neither wholly good, nor wholly bad. The journey from evil to good is not yet complete. God alone is wholly good.
9. For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven; it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy (St. Therese of Lisieux).
Too often we make of prayer a complicated thing.
Please feel free to add your own insights. I hope to post more of these in the near future.
Here is a collection of sayings, most of which ring true to me, set to music:
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Example...
Hillary will govern with the same grace, honesty, and dignity as Eva Peron and Imelda Marcos.
bfl
These are not metaphors.
http://www.funzine.hu/2014-10-the-most-terrifying-female-rulers-in-history/
Lol. I know we are all human beings, created in the image of God, but sometimes NASSSSTY women rulers can add a certain Je ne said quoi quality to their reign of terror.
Now there's a metaphor. Or is it still a metaphor if it is a negative statement? If you had said, "These are not like metaphors", then that would be a simile, which wouldn't be a metaphor. :)
I might as well rant on:
3. A woman sought out a confessor of long experience. In her confession she recounted the behaviors that troubled her. She then began to detail how these behaviors seemed somehow connected with her experience of having grown up in an alcoholic home. At that point the grizzled veteran confessor reached out and, gently patting her hand, asked: “My dear do you want forgiveness or an explanation?”
Some people confuse confession and spirituality with therapy. Therapy offers explanations; confession seeks mercy and forgiveness.<<<
Or some confuse the providing of context with making excuses or needing therapy. Good thing God takes in all the factors. If a person is abused by others and/or his weaknesses purposefully exploited, then he shouldn't be ashamed to say that these abusers had a hand in his behavioral failings that need forgiveness and mercy. Allowing others to undermine proper decisions and to knock us off track such that we do stupid horrid stuff *is* a failure. That's not seeking excuses or explanation. Ignoring full context skips over this element and also gives abusers a pass.
Mercy is being gracious and understanding to a person who is hurting, for the fact that he is hurting. Not that complicated. How about just loving people and having compassion for them, without checking to ensure that they are sufficiently ego-less. Forgive the person for "wanting therapy" (or justification) in his retelling of his failures and transgressions, or don't assume a misguided motive in the first place. He just might respond to the love. That's one way to overwrite the past: superceed all the awful garbage and scrutiny with a simple "love your neighbor as yourself" attitude.
Perhaps this story/allegory is more about a woman who just hoped to trust a "veteran confessor", but he slammed the door with his patronizing pat. That'll teach her. There's a reason people followed the Messiah everywhere he went, crying out to him for mercy. He wasn't like the others. He isn't like the others.
Worldly wisdom needs to be given the boot.
Especially to women.
On the other hand, to be fair to the (probably fictional) "grizzled old confessor," maybe he just meant, "This isn't the right context to address your entire history. There's a line. Let's just go with the deliberate actions you've made that you know were wrong."
All these instructional tales (not metaphors) are pretty thin, in my opinion.
A sweetness seems to last amid the dregs of past sorrows.
Burnt to a crisp.
Scathing "wit" that masquerades as loving, Godly counsel.. I'll pass. The real thing isn't anything like that.
Maybe a person gains a little instruction from these tales, maybe not.
You know who great with an instruction tale? JESUS. I’m reading books by Dr. Kenneth Bailey which analyze the Gospels from the perspective, as much as possible, of the original audience. The unwritten literary techniques employed by Jesus, just like those employed by Homer, boggle the mind.
The evangelists, such as Luke, employ traditional Middle Eastern poetic structures that encompass 8 or 10 chapters of a Gospel. Only the Holy Spirit could be behind this.
If I had to chose a single word to characterize the examples, it would be “cold.” That’s why I’m pretty sure most are fiction ... although one never knows. One reason that faith in Jesus the Messiah is utterly unique is that He is never cold.
What is the title of the book by Bailey?
The two I have are “Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes” and “Poet and Peasant (plus) Through Peasant Eyes.” Each costs less than $20 from Alibris.com.
Dr. Bailey was a Protestant minister and college instructor in the Middle East for more than 30 years. He’s fluent in Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew, Aramaic ...
To our English understanding of New Testament texts, based in Greek and Latin, he brings information from Arabic, Syriac, and other Christian sources that are based in the cultures in which the Gospels originated. He also brings his own experience of living in these (nearly unchanged) cultures and knowing the people and their lives.
This material has been the focus of my study in the last six months or so, and it had just exploded my understanding of the Lord Jesus and what He was doing in His temporal context. It’s almost like another conversion.
Thank you.
You’re welcome. If you can find these books, they will, if nothing else, enhance your experience of reading the Gospels by filling in details of life in Roman Palestine in the time of Christ.
Only to the presumptuous interlopers. These examples are indeed cold. They may be fiction but the spirit behind them isn't.
Be great when all is finally set right.
Msgr. Pope is usually very good. I think he’s using filler here.
Every one of us has to be aware of the possibility of turning cold and didactic toward our neighbor. Being warm, making that person, no matter what his life is or has been, the one focus of our love, is extremely hard and can only be done when filled with the Holy Spirit.
I did like the one about the lentils, though. The modern world, viewed through a bowl of lentils. That really is a metaphor.
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