JBU, GBU, what's up with that?

"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."

Matthew 5:13 (NAB)

I have the desire to write a little bit more on the tension in between those who love the novus ordo missae and the Traditional Latin Mass (or the Gregorian Mass, or the 1962 Missal). But let's put it off until next time.

I just want to give perspective on the terms that people use: GBU and JBU. This is something quite common back home in Indonesia. So, a little bit of clarification will be good.

As I wrote earlier, I used to be a "fundamentalist", kind of, due to my own ignorance. So, here's a snippet look in why do fundamentalist want to use JBU (Jesus Bless U) instead of GBU (God Bless U) according to the their belief.

It's actually quite simple. The fundamentalist saw that people use God Bless U (GBU) a lot in our own society (especially for text messaging). Seeing this phenomena, they then think amongst themselves, "Hey, what's up with this? Who is God? Is the God of Muslim and Christian the same?"

They then saw that the Muslim God was actually not quite the same as the Christian God. Therefore, in order to reclaim the expression God Bless U into the Christian notion according to the fundamentalist belief, they came up with this new thing: Jesus Bless U (hence: JBU).

Now, move on to the Catholic idea of the God of Muslim and the God of Christianity.

Catechism of the Catholic Church wrote about Islam in article 841:

The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.

According to Jimmy Akin, this is what it means when the catechism says, "together with us they adore the one, merciful God,...":

For many, this statement is perplexing. However, as we saw in last issue’s "Brass Tacks" column, God is aware of and acknowledges all that is good and true in the worship offered to him, however imperfect an understanding of him a worshiper may have. While Muslims, like Jews, do not accept the Trinity, they do acknowledge that God is the only true God and that he is merciful. This means that they honor things that are true about God but have a limited understanding of him.

Read more about it here.

So, what is it then, that should hold us in saying God Bless U and preferring to use Jesus Bless U?

I just thought that this needs to be addressed somehow. We, as a Christian, are called to be the salt of the earth. What are we, if we just hang out with other salt (Christians), speak our own Christianese (e.g. ineffable, grace, redemption, salvation) language. Why don't we go out into where ever this world is at, and start to speak its language, start to build a common ground, and be salt?

And for trivia time: Do you know that salary derived its rood word from salt? Read more here in wikipedia.

So, next time you receive your salary: think about "Salt". More importantly, think about Jesus.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."

Matthew 5:13(NAB)