"We don't begin to know how much God wants us. Will we ever trust that desirous and desiring place within our own hearts, where God is a passionate God? In many ways the Western Church has been negative about our bodies, feelings, emotions. We've been afraid to discover, to trust that passionate part of God." (R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 125)
Most people of faith will say that they love God, and if a Christian they'll say they love Jesus, but often it feels more like loving an object. When we hear the word passion, it almost immediately turns into something bordering on a soap opera.
The comfort level with God seems to be around merciful and compassionate. Some like to focus on the judging side, especially when it's happening to other folk. But God as passionate? God as perhaps "lover?" Now we start to get a little squeamish. Which is somewhat ironic given the sex obsessed culture we live in, both glorifying and condemning.
And yet for me the image isn't that hard to take on. Passionate for me gives the notion of being willing to do anything for, at least with in reason. Unreasonable passion I think I'd call rabid. But the beauty of having a "lover" (I happen to be married to mine) is that it feels mutual. And because I'm able to accept that another person could actually love, want me to that extent, I can attribute that same acceptance to my relationship with God.
Maybe one way for us to reconcile the love-hate relationship that the church has with body, emotions and feelings, is to see how that relationship is revealed in God. By not ignoring the passionate side of God, but not making it the only part. Our relationship with God has the potential to be the best model for a healthy relationship. We just need to let go of our obsessions and phobias around it.
Blessings,
Ed
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