God transcends the human limitation of gender

There’s a new document on the Vatican web site called “From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017.” It was quoted on Facebook by a friend who took umbrage at the following sentence:

“The Gospel should be celebrated and communicated to the people of our time so that the world may believe that God gives Godself to human beings and calls us into communion with Godself and God’s Church.”

Fair enough, I thought. But I knew what had angered my pal was the use of the word “Godself.”

When I was at theology school, I wrote the word “Godself ” quite often. I think “God Godself ” is rather euphonious, reminiscent of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. If you don’t like two hard-Gs in succession, ponder the softer French “Dieu Dieu-même.” I like it. I think it is a workable solution to the contemporary problem of the third person masculine pronoun, and said so on Facebook. “Feminist,” typed my irascible pal. “Liberal.”