After tasting a piece of bread used for Eucharist that was "sweet, like caramel on your ice cream" (p.158), Winner is struck by the psalmist's words to "taste and see that the Lord is sweet." Do you think the adjective "sweet" is a good word to describe God? Do you often think of God as sweet? If not, why?
Have you ever had a sensory experience--a taste, a semall, the feel of a rough piece of fabric--that helped you understand something about God?
For tomorrow: please read page 160-161
2 comments:
My knee jerk reaction is "no." "Sweet" is not a word that I use in my list of adjectives for God. Some of that is my culture. Sweet is chocolate, sweet is a puppy, sweet is a cute little kid in a dorky costume. Sweet is not the creator of the universe and the Saviour of the world. But then, I have issues with the domestication of Jesus and of God.
So with that rant said, I will say that I think the notion of God as sweet can work and may even be helpful. And I think Winner's description of the communion bread and the understanding of Jesus as sweet works in this instance.
It is difficult for our Western minds to conceive of something as indescribable. We often feel the need to make concrete that which is not.
I understand the image that Winner uses. For me, all of my senses come into play at so many different times. This is why I need liturgy that attends to all the senses.
Yes, there is the paradoxical tastes of the wine that remind us of the sweetness and bitterness simultaneously. The smell and smoke rising of the incense, the use of beautiful music, thoughtful language...all of these whirl around and are God...each brings a different aspect of God to the forefront of the mind.
Being a musician, most of my sensory experiences have been through music: Le Chemin de la Croix by Marcel Dupre with poetry by Paul Claudel; Saint John Passion of Bach; Spem in alium by Tallis.
If you don't know any of these pieces listen to them and then think of words to describe God.
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