[ Today's Readings ]
“Do you understand what you are reading?”
He replied,
“How can I, unless someone instructs me?”
We all feel this way about the word of God occasionally. Not just the readers of this blog, not just its author, but even the greatest of scripture scholars occasionally encounter things which they don't understand. But there is good news for us and for them.
They shall all be taught by God.
Jesus reveals the Father to us. He is the Father's spoken word.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
That is why there is a sense in which we don't need teachers.
But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him (see First John 2:27).
The teachers we don't need are those who teach only according to the wisdom of the world. They might be intellectual and academic but they are not spiritual.
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power (see First Corinthians 1:17).
And yet there are teachers who open themselves to the Spirit and become channels of the divine wisdom for us. We do need such teachers as these. Everyone who listens to the Father comes to these teachers just as they come to Jesus. The same word is spoken.
The Spirit said to Philip,
“Go and join up with that chariot.”
...
Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.
So where does this leave us when we're confused? It means we don't need to be frustrated by our lack of understanding or our lack of training and scholarship. These things are not essential to the kerygma, the core truth of the scriptures. It means that when we don't understand we can trust God to teach us. We can rely on the anointing he gives us and the teachers he sends to teach us the truth he wants us to know.
Jesus, help us to know more deeply the truth of who you are today. This is what the Father wants us to know. This is why you yourself are the word he speaks.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world.
Spirit anoint us and open our eyes to this glorious truth that is so easy to miss amidst the accidents of bread and wine.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue.
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