PASS IT ON!

 

We had a short reading at Lauds this morning from Second Corinthians, It's so beautiful that I decided that I should share it in my post this morning.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father and the God who gives us every possible encouragement; he supports us in every hardship, so that we are able to come to the support of others, in every hardship of theirs because of the encouragement that we ourselves receive from God." (2 Cor. 1:3-4)

A KEY WORD

An interesting thing to know about this passage is that it contains a Greek noun that occurs half a

dozen times, but which has such a variety of meanings that you don't notice the repetition in the above English translation. The word is paraklesis (related to the word "paraclete" which also has several meanings). Here's the passage again, but this time I've underlined the words that translate "paraklesis" or its verb form "parakaleo."

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father and the God who gives us every possible encouragement; he supports us in every hardship, so that we are able to come to the support of others, in every hardship of theirs because of the encouragement that we ourselves receive from God."

Here's a different translation (New King James Version) that translates the Greek consistently each time:

Not the whole picture

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

The translation of paraklētos/parakalein as "comforter/to comfort" is however, a poor and misleading one. The story of how this mistranslation came about is worth looking at. When John Wycliffe used “Comforter” his English translation of the Bible in 1382, the verb "to comfort" still had its original Latin meaning, based on the adjective fortis, "strong:" it meant "to give strength," as a general might do in getting his troops ready for battle. Back then a “comforter” was not a passive presence but an active force. In modern English, however, we call on the “Comforter” in times of trouble thinking that we’re asking the Spirit to come and pat our hand and stroke our brow. But the Paraclete will come to “comfort” us only in the original sense, to give us courage for the struggles of life, and to help us to keep fighting our daily battles without losing heart.   

WHAT´S THE POINT FOR US?

Now let's look at the point of the passage. In the first translation above, we saw the words
"encouragement" and "support." Having received these gifts from the Lord (from the Paraclete" if you will), we must now pass these gifts on to others. We are called by the Lord to encourage, strengthen and help our brothers and sisters who are in need of a "paraclete" on their life’s journey.

 

But just who is it that we're supposed to encourage, strengthen and help? People we like, who think the way we do, or who look like us, or who have the same religion or language? The passage makes it pretty clear that we are given these gifts "so that we are able to come to the support of others, in every hardship of theirs because of the encouragement that we ourselves receive from God." We are to pass along God's gifts to others, with no restrictions except that the other be in need of help.

It's a challenge, I suppose, for us to encourage and support others, especially people we may not even like. But this passage makes it pretty clear that it is part of our vocation as members of Christ, who sent us the "Paraclete" to strengthen and encourage us, to pass along these gifts and not just clutch them selfishly to our hearts.