… D.I.E.U. SAUVEGUIDE [G.O.D. SAVEGUIDE].

Stage 84 / Sunday 19 July / Santiago de Compostela

 

Here I am, only a few more steps to reach the great plaza in front of the sanctuary, the cathedral in whose crypt one can see the tomb of Saint James the Major. These are the final moments of this virtual pilgrimage. I have been led to do it by the book of Guy Trainar. I’m finally going to know what the title of his book signifies. So, what is the meaning of these periods between the letters which compose the word DIEU (GOD)? Each of these letters is, necessarily, an initial. I’m going to discover that today as my final week of walking ends. I have covered 135 kilometers in meditating on what Guy proposes:

 

“Word elevated to the sacred building up intimately to pray G.O.D. saveguide
[D.I.E.U. sauveguide]”

Itinerary from Triacastela to Santiago de Compostela (12th week)

In total, from Saint-Chef, near Morestel, from which I departed in retracing Guy’s itinerary, I have covered 1534 kilometers to venerate the holy patron of Santiago. As during my first pilgrimage in 2005, it was an exhilarating adventure. I touched on subjects that one doesn’t tackle every day! I imagine now having again received my “compostela” in an adjacent building, a pilgrim’s diploma attesting in Latin that I have effectuated the pilgrimage all the way to this holy place. One receives it on presenting the “credencial,” a sort of passport that one must carefully have stamped to bring the proof of all the places and dates of lodging.

 

Itinerary from Saint-Chef, near Morestel in Dauphiné, to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia

Here is what Guy offers as a conclusion with the initials of the word D.I.E.U. [GOD in French]. The first letter, D, refers to the word “dynamics” [dynamique] because everything in the universe seems to be in motion, all the time, from the particulate to the astral. If one believes he is observing rest, it is only a local particularity in a world always in motion.

 

Then comes the letter I. Guy thinks that dynamics govern the material as much as the immaterial. He feels that dynamics doesn’t cease giving form to matter while at the same time “informing” [informant] the spirit: “Matter and spirit mutually edify each other,” he says. So here we are, therefore, with a “dynamics informing” in a continuous manner. It never ceases to edify the human, Guy, me, and you who are reading us.

 

Next is the letter E. It refers to the word “efflorescing” [épanouissement] because Guy believes that the dynamics foster a general happening, constantly open toward more blooming. That, he recognizes does not allow specifying the nature of this “efflorescing”, but Guy considers that the essential point is not there. So far, we have arrived at a “dynamic informing efflorescing.”

 

And finally comes the U. Guy proposes that such dynamics is involved in all that exists and generates all that will exist. Quite possibly it therefore has a “universal” [universel] character, at least insofar human thought can imagine it. After all, the God of religion, or the God of all religions, isn’t he supposed to be at the origin of everything that can observed or conceived of by the thinking beings, the humans?

 

And there is the result, in four words, which gather together under the abbreviation D.I.E.U.: “Dynamics Informing Efflorescing Universality [Dynamique Informant l’Épanouissement Universel.]” This is what “saveguides” us!

 

This abbreviation barely established, Guy himself recognizes, one might feel disappointed by a “lamentable pirouette” on his part. And I am, alas, in agreement there. Thus, I would like to better understand what leads to this disappointment!

 

Objectively, science does in fact allows the observation of what Guy proposes with his abbreviation: yes, everything is in perpetual motion, by itself or because of the celestial body on which it finds itself; yes, everything seems to contribute to the formation of something new, to the evolution toward something different or inform those capable of being informed and willing to do so. But to pretend that this permanently lead to “efflorescing universality” seems to me very subjective.

 

It seems to me that perpetual motion leads to as many dead ends and annihilations (black holes!) than to “efflorescing”. This word “efflorescing” today implies more often positive than negative connotations. It is more likely associated with flowering, to hatching, to pleasing bursts and generous expansions than to what follows: deliquescence, decadence or alienation. Thus Guy sees in the dynamics that he proposes the efflorescence of light, not being sure whether it is only cosmic or also cerebral. And this, with his pirouette, leads him to avoid breaking away from prayer, except that now he prays “his D.I.E.U. [G.O.D.] saveguide.” Yet, even light can be totally annihilated by gravitation into matter: a matter so dense and so massive that even light cannot get out of it, a black hole! This phenomena is not very efflorescent, it seems to me. Can one pray a black hole?

 

I respect his intent to build such a vision that is his own. It is a new approach to tackling what I believe, myself, be a “GOD saveguide” [DIEU sauveguide] in capital letters and without periods between the letters. In my opinion, examining what I believe to be in “light” of what Guy has helped me sort out in my stage notes where I was reacting to what he wrote, I have the hunch that a more generous God does exist.

 

It is for me a God whom we cannot understand in His totality and His uniqueness. I cannot reduce Him to be for my mind a dynamics of information in constant and universal efflorescing. I believe, by the assurance that He has given, sending His Son true God himself and true man at the same time, that His will is to give us unstinting support regardless of any ordeal we may face. If all humans begin to respect this God, and kneel down to plead Him to prevent the imminent impact of a meteorite, I want to believe that such a God has the power to move away the course of the celestial object.

 

Am I wrong? Is Guy right? No one, in any case, can bring proof one way or another, I believe. And as long as no one fight each other any other way than through writing contests, as I just did, may either God or G.O.D. [Dieu ou D.I.E.U.] save and guide us!