In Hebrew the word rechem is the root word for compassion, mercy and womb. It is also the root for one of the Biblical names of God. In Deuteronomy 4:31 God is referenced as: "...Yahweh your God is a merciful God" [El Rachem].
Several times, in the Gospels, Jesus is said to be moved with compassion and in the parable the Good Samaritan is moved with compassion towards the beaten man. These Biblical episodes join all the elements in the rechem metaphor. A pregnant woman can literally feel the movement of her child, in the womb, and be overcome with a deep sense of intimacy, compassion and love and the desire to protect. There is another person existing within the boundaries of her personal space who needs her nurturing to survive.
The Good Samaritan exhibited all the attributes of the rechem response. He takes the beaten stranger into the womb of his compassion and sees that he is nurtured back to wholeness. He sees the stranger as an extension of himself an d is the means of the man’s physical salvation.
There is a prerequisite to the rechem response and that is humility. We tend to fill the container of our life, to the brim, with our personal issues so that there is no room in our inn when compassion and mercy come looking for a place to stay. Humility syphons off some of our self so that our spiritual womb has room to receive what ever El Rachem wants to gestate within us.
There is another name of God mentioned in Isaiah 12:2 — "Behold, God is my salvation" [El Yeshuati]. At the Christmas season we celebrate Yeshua [Jesus], as Son of God, coming to earth as the Saviour, or the Great Compassion. He comes to give us the gift of Himself and we have the honour to be nurtured by Him in the Eucharist. As the culmination of this season, let us be filled with gratitude and wonder as the gift of our salvation comes to us wrapped in the womb of the Virgin
Credits: 1. Blog image of the Visitation taken from Wikimedia Commons.
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Adele's Photography
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