The Flaming Heart of a ‘Wild God’
In his recently released song, Nick Cave sings about a “Wild God.” The lyrics are strange, enigmatic, and beautiful. I will not be analyzing them for the present (they point more to a nominalist God, which could be another blog).
However, I would like to take this idea of a “wild god,” and examine it more closely. Then through that lens I will look at the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is June’s devotion in the Catholic Church.
God’s Wildness Defined
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For many people in modern times, God is anything but “wild.” He has been demoted to little more than a genie to grant our every wish, or Santa Clause, as Elvis Costello quips in a song:
Sometimes you confuse me for Santa Clause,
It’s the big white beard I suppose.
This view of God as a vague benefactor has been described as “morally therapeutic deism.” It is watered-down Christianity with no moral limits where everyone gets into heaven “as long as they aren’t Hitler.”
But this is only a recent phenomenon. For most of human history the opposite was assumed: God (or “the gods”) were unruly, and capricious, the very definition of “wild gods.” The Greek gods, for example, chained Prometheus to a stone for stealing fire. Saturn ate his children to prevent his being usurped by them.
The God of the bible, however, is quite different. He stands alone as the only truly “wild god,” all others being tame by comparison. The reason being that true wildness contains an element of unpredictability. While the pagan gods are totally predictable. They follow their lusts and passions, no different than human beings.
The Weirdness of Wildness
In his unique wildness Yahweh is, frankly, weird. His weirdness stems from his unprecedented jealousy and his love.
Firstly, he claims to be the only true God, commanding Moses, “you shall have no other gods before me,” despite the norm being polytheism. And when the Arc of the Covenant was captured, pagan idols fell over in its presence.
Secondly, he is weird in his love, caring deeply for his creation and wishing that all be saved. It is an absurd, unprecedented love. Of course, anyone who has been in love knows it makes one weird, unpredictable, and wild.
A short poem by Nick Cave says as much:
God is love but love gets weird
Said the flea to the ant in the devil’s beard
We are passengers here, and it’s as we feared
That God is love but love gets weirdYes, God gets weird and so does love
Said the flea to the ant and gave him a shove
And came down upon him from above
Crying, God gets weird and so does loveWell, Weird got Love and God got Weird
And in the monstrous morning there appeared
The very thing we’ve always feared
That God is nothing, but love gone weird
A Lion and a Lamb
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These two sides of God are best personified by a lion and a lamb. He is justice and mercy; King and servant – a true paradox.
He commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. A brutal command reminiscent of the pagan gods. But then he spares him and reveals it was a test. “Santa Clause God” would never do such a thing, nor would the pagan gods.
The old testament is full of episodes like this. God shows himself a lion when he punishes Israel for its unfaithfulness, and as a lamb when he shows undeserved mercy.
If this is unclear in the old testament, it is fully manifest in the new. God reveals himself to be meek as a lamb, and is born as an infant. And Christ expresses the love of God in parables like the prodigal son, and in sayings like “all the hairs on your head are numbered.”
At the same time, Christ was the original “fire and brimstone preacher,” demonstrated by talk of “outer darkness” and unflinching condemnation of the Pharisees:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”
-Matthew 23:13-15
Another more visual example is his cleansing of the temple:
“So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.”
Finally, he does something totally unprecedented: he allows himself to be arrested, crucified, and killed. Not only for his friends, but also for his enemies. The lion allows itself to be slain like a lamb.
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The Sacred Heart of Jesus
In the crucifixion the weirdness of God’s love is made fully manifest.
To be arrested and killed appears to be weakness. But to willingly endure such a thing is anything but. This paradox of merciful-justice and weak-strength is the final example of God’s unique wildness. As St. Paul says:
“We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks Foolishness” - 1 Corinthians 1:23
This act is the final revelation of God’s heart, which is seen only obliquely in the old testament. And it is where the Sacred Heart of Jesus comes in. It is the only image that illustrates his love adequately. Other depictions, such as a crucifix, show the act but not the motive. The Sacred Heart shows them both.
It is a visceral, even violent image: A human heart engulfed in flames. A tiny cross at the top. A crown of thorns encircling it.
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The flames show he is willing to be consumed for the sake of love. The crown of thorns shows he is a king, but not of this world. The cross shows the act that proved this love.
The French word for heart is coeur, meaning core. So his heart is his essence. In some paintings he points to it as a reminder of this essence. It shows he is neither the “tame” modern god nor the “cruel” ancient god.
Today the Sacred Heart appears not only in churches, but in popular culture. Sometimes reverently, sometimes blasphemously, but always with a certain fascination. It is an image that is both strange and beautiful, like the wild god himself.
So what does it mean for God to be wild? It means he is utterly unique and unpredictable. Fierce as a lion and gentle as a lamb. And finally, loving with an intensity that transcends words. This is why he is best depicted by the flaming heart of a wild God.