furious

OK the title is not complete but maybe it got your attention.

I'm about halfway through the furious longing of God.

If you've heard of the Ragamuffin Gospel then you know all about brennan manning (don't know if this is an e.e. cumming's thing but he doesn't use a lot of capitals)

I won't even try to critique the book - I'm sure he is not for everybody but ... I ran across this in today's early morning read. I took a break from reading the Psalms in the Message to peruse more of furious.

I always enjoy links or connections and I guess that's what appealed to me here.

Manning has just spoken of the last words of Jesus on the cross; the all-too-familiar "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

Manning notes that a French Biblical scholar named Pierre Benoit, posited what he thought God might have spoken back to Jesus at that moment. Here is Benoit's suggestion from the New Jerusalem Bible:

"Come now, my love. My lovely one, come.
For you, the winter has passed,
the snows are over and gone,
the flowers appear in the land,
the season of joyful songs has come."

This comes from the Song of Solomon (see Chap. 2:10-14 for the full passage). This is a plausible and most certainly beautiful way of imagining what God might have said as Jesus hung there waiting. Waiting to die.

We can only imagine further that these words "Into Your hands I commit my spirit." were Jesus' response to the words attributed to Solomon.

I'm less than halfway through this short book but am really enjoying it. It comes in short little chunks that can be easily read at one sitting and give the brain and spirit something to think about for the rest of the day.