Thursday of the 3rd Week of Eastertide
Acts 8:26-40 | Psalm 65(66):8-9,16-17,20 | John 6:44-51
When Philip ran up, he heard [the eunuch] reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’
‘How can I’ he replied ‘unless I have someone to guide me?’ So he invited Philip to get in and sit by his side. (Acts 8:30-31)
I’M NOT STUPID!
That exclamation briefly jarred me out of my daily rosary on the train yesterday. It was yelled by a young student who was evidently being teased by his friends around him.
As the group ran out of the train at the next stop, a sudden thought hit me:
Do I understand what I’m praying?
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Consubstantiation. Incarnation. Resurrection.
These are just three of the mysteries we profess to believe in both the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds. Do we have any hope of truly understanding them, of being able to explain the how of it all?
Not in our lifetimes, and perhaps not even in the life to come, when we finally see God face to face.
Sometimes, it’s enough to make us think ourselves stupid.
We can, however, gain some small measure of wisdom in faith, by immersing ourselves with wondrous pondering in the twin pools of sacred Scripture and holy Tradition.
But a solo journey in faith is a dangerous one, filled with the potential for detours into mindless mysticism (“Christ is really in the host? wah, like magic, man!”), pernicious pride (“hah! I know more than any of my ministry’s members! I must educate them!”), and a fatal fall into despair (“this doesn’t make any sense! why am I wasting my time with all this Catholic mumbo-jumbo?”).
By journeying with others at Catholic seminars, and sharing our thoughts about the readings of the day, we help each other see more clearly the path that is Life, the path that our ancestors in faith have followed, the path which we too are called to tread.
By infusing love in our daily interactions with others, and thereby consciously practise what we preach, we give life to the word of God that we hear and read, give life to the less fortunate among us, and give life especially to ourselves in our darker moments.
And at regular Eucharistic communion with our brothers and sisters in faith, we can bolster our common commitment to the Way, Truth and Life, confident that no matter what trials and tribulations await each of us, we need never walk alone, for we are no longer strangers to each other.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
Brothers and sisters, if you have any appropriate reflections on what you just read, please do share them in the comments. Like Philip and the eunuch, we travel best on the road of faith…when we travel together.
Amen.