Mighty. Mysterious. Magnificent. The Jews respected God's mightiness and Otherness so much that their sacred Name for Him, a word we spell and pronounce as "Yahweh," was considered literally unspeakable. When they spoke or wrote about God, they used "Elohim" or "Adonai." Today we know that the Mystery of God's Name and Who God is goes even deeper. In Hebrew, God's sacred Name is the Sacred Tetragrammaton, YHVH: yod, he, vav, and he. Scholars have discovered that long ago, the word was not spoken, but breathed. Its correct pronunciation may well be a way to imitate and replicate the very sounds of breathing in and breathing out. For this reason, some teachers of prayer and contemplation tell their students "Stay with the breath. Attend to your breath." The more we are conscious of our breathing, the more we are conscious of our God whose Name our entire body experiences in the act of drawing oxygen in and sending carbon dioxide out. | What this means for us spiritually is that now God is not only mighty and mysterious but also merciful and approachable: God is as close to us as our breath. Every time we breathe, from the time we enter this world until the moment we leave it, we say the Name of God. Fr. Richard Rohr observes (in "The Naked Now") " There is no Islamic, Christian, or Jewish way of breathing. There is no American, Asian, or African way of breathing. There is no rich way or poor way of breathing. The playing field is utterly leveled. The air of the earth is one and the same air, and this divine wind "blows where it will." (John 3:8) - which appears to be everywhere." When we breathe consciously we know we are connected to the whole world, including plants and animals and trees. Rohr continues "And we are now told that the atoms we breathe are physically the same as the stardust from the original Big Bang. Oneness is no longer a vague mystical notion but a scientific fact." How beautiful to know that God Himself has drawn human breath - in the beloved Person of His Son Jesus Christ. He took His first breath as He came forth from Mary's Body, and handed His last breath over to His Father on the cross - "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit."(Luke 23:46.) How wonderful our life can be - to feel God as naturally close to us and approachable as our own breathing, and to trust Him with our last breath. |
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