Understanding is a Gift

Try as we might to understand God, it is ultimately impossible. Jesus Christ is both God and man. The Father is the source of all things. The Son is begotten but has always existed. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father but exists everywhere and fills all things. WHAT!?

At that time, a lawyer came up to Jesus and asked him a question, to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put your enemies under your feet’? If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Matthew 22.35-46

While Jesus was teaching a lawyer, He challenged the Pharisees’ knowledge to an impossible level. “If David thus calls him Lord, how is he is son?” We are faced with the same challenge from God. His truth is only possible to understand when He opens our hearts and minds.

The gift of understanding from God is because He is the creator and we are created. It is impossible for the creature to understand the creator. With God, He gently opens our hearts to Him, but only when we are ready.

In the Gospel lesson today, the Pharisees weren’t trying to learn God’s love. They was trying to ‘be smart’ and failed. Instead of trying to ‘figure God out’ we should learn from today’s lesson. We must trust that when we are ready, in God’s mind, He will open our hearts and minds.

Until then, we can only pray for God’s mercy and patience as we daily fail to understand His expectations of us. We don’t fail necessarily because we don’t desire to honor God. We fail because we are always considering God’s commandments from our point of view.

Our point of view is fallen. God’s point of view is perfect. Until we ‘let go’ of our understanding we won’t embrace His way of thinking. This is why He says is the Gospel of Mark, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Mark 8.34)

Have you ever said, “I can’t imagine ‘a god’ that would do that.” This normally means we are rationalizing our sinful choices. We think we know better than God. We think the Church is ‘out of touch’ but the Church is the Body of Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit.

Since we are still in the ‘new year resolution’ season, I’ll offer another suggestion. Make this the year you choose to trust the Church’s way of thinking, which is God’s way of thinking. It will mean letting go of some old ways and embracing some new ways.

Once you let go of your understanding, when God decides you’re ready, He will give you the gift of understanding….and not until then. It begins with the willingness to let go. The Pharisees chose to just stop asking questions rather than letting go of their understanding. They failed.