Much of our daily use of language involves figurative speech, especially metaphors, which involve comparisons between two different, but in some way, related subjects.
This feature of speech is meant to help us to draw out the meaning of some term, often in a colourful and imaginative way. Take, for example, the statement, “The Lion is the King of the Jungle.” The grammatical form of this sentence is a statement but, of course, it mustn’t be understood literally. It would be silly to respond to this use of metaphor by asking where the lion’s palace is situated?
Likewise, if you say, “My heart is heavy today” everyone knows that this is not meant to be taken literally. Looking for a weighing scales to find the exact weight of this bodily organ would be an odd response indeed! To tell a student in class to “pull up your socks” is a metaphor for being more diligent in their studies, not a command referring to their clothing, and so on.
Metaphors are of particular importance in our expression of religious beliefs, when discussing mysterious, supernatural realities. God is often spoken of in Scripture as a “father” and / or “king,” in language that can seem to invoke a literal truth whereas, in fact, we must at the same time deny that God is what we usually mean by these roles in political and family circles.
This is the danger inherent in the use of metaphor when we use the word “is,” a term which often expresses identity, whereas a metaphor is closer in form to what we call in English literature a simile, a comparison typically introduced by “like.”
Thus, in claiming that “God is my father,” I am really saying that God is ‘like’ a father, hastening to add: “But God is not exactly equivalent to an earthly dad, being a pure spirit!” In other words, metaphors exist in a tension between “is” and “is not.”
God is like a human father in being a loving creator of life, the head of a family, the breadwinner but in a spiritual, rather than in a narrowly material sense. At the same time, we might argue that this traditional model of the fatherly role is too limiting, especially as the modern family exists in different forms, with mothers sharing in those traditional roles. It has been suggested, therefore, that a motherly metaphor may be applied to God, with further attributes we associate with motherhood.
The key advice in using religious metaphors is to multiply them as far as possible, so that the mystery underlying our faith is not reduced to a small number of familiar images. We need metaphors that both complement and challenge each other, bowing in respect before the infinite richness of God’s reality.
This, in fact, is what the New Testament frequently does, as exemplified in the way in which Jesus refers to himself. In John 10, for instance, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. This metaphor can be unpacked with reference to the roles of the traditional shepherd; calling his sheep by name, leading them out to pasture, protecting them from wolves and brigands, seeking out the lost and finally, giving up his life for his flock.
This rich metaphor draws out so many of the features of a religious teacher and leader, while obviously not being literally true of the man Jesus, who after all was described as a carpenter, not a shepherd!
But now our imagination is struck by something new, the introduction of a mixed metaphor, which might confuse the unwary reader. John the Baptist famously points out Jesus to his disciples as the “Lamb of God” (Jn1:36). But how can Jesus be both a shepherd and a sheep? He can, we might suggest, in the metaphorical world, where the image of the lamb has a marked sacrificial sense which we can apply to the “suffering servant” (another metaphor used by the prophet Isaiah) who gives his life in atonement for the sins of the people.
Jesus offers himself up on the Cross on Good Friday around the time that the Passover Lamb is being sacrificed in the temple. This ‘once and for all’ offering of God’s beloved “lamb” makes obsolete any further lamb sacrifices, as Jesus also becomes the new “temple” of God (more metaphor!).
Traditionally, writers were encouraged to avoid confusing readers by using mixed metaphors, but the inspired writers of the New Testament, gleefully break this rule, delighting in multiplying images to bring out the wealth of meanings revealed by the Holy Spirit.
In recent daily Mass readings, St Paul is a major culprit (in one sense) when writing in the Letter to the Ephesians about the status of pagan converts to the Faith. In Chapter 2, vs 19-22, Paul piles on metaphor after metaphor, beginning with a contrast between aliens or foreign visitors, and citizens: “So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints” (V.19). In a world where borders are strictly policed and non-nationals are carefully vetted, we can begin to understand the privilege it is to become a member of the Christian community. Baptism is like one of those citizenship ceremonies where new members are finally made to feel at home!
But then Paul the makes a further leap, introducing another striking metaphor, that of family or household. The citizen / saints are also “part of God’s household” (v.19). The Church is seen now in a more personal, intimate way, as a family made up of Jewish and once-Pagan brothers and sisters.
Nor does Paul halt here in his metaphorical explorations. The next step is to compare belonging to the faith to being a part of a building. But no ordinary one! For this edifice “has the apostles and prophets for its foundation stones and Christ Jesus himself for its main corner stone” (v.20).
It would be interesting to follow through with this metaphor and to ask ourselves what parts of this building we see ourselves being? Are we a window through which people see God at work? Or a door, through which others may enter, or a kitchen where people can be fed?
Then, Paul concludes as he did in completing the citizen metaphor with the more intimate family one, by saying that this new building is of a very special type, viz. a religious temple, a holy place in which God lives in the Spirit (v21). All sorts of other possibilities arise in applying this image to our lives as Christians, specifically in the sphere of prayer and worship, given the metaphor of God’s house.
Yes, St Paul is an inspired user of spiritual metaphor, reminding us of the danger of focusing on one or two limited images, which quickly become so-called “dead” metaphors, whose over-familiarity means that they lose their ability to develop our religious imagination and ultimately lead to a domesticated God, a god who is too small to be worthy of worship.
No doubt in some circumstances mixed metaphors can be a curse, but in the hands of the sacred writers and especially in the mind of Christ, mixed metaphors can be the greatest blessing.
Kieran Cronin ofm