Beyond our ability to comprehend

What do you do when you take one step back and try to comprehend the God who made everything? The challenge for me is not a challenge of faith but rather a challenge of insignificance. 

How do you stand in God’s presence knowing that everything about him is totally, absolutely, completely beyond anything that we are, let alone our ability to comprehend?

Image by Barbara Jackson

Reflection - Asking

By Steve Hall



https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052822.cfm
Acts 18:23-28
John 16:23-28


It’s always important to know the God you are talking about.

Usually, when we simply say ‘God’ the reference is to the Father even though we proclaim that God is a Trinity. Still, our lived awareness of the Father can be somewhat ambiguous.

I can affirm that the Father loves me, even holding that as truth without reservation. Such is the consequence of being sensitive to his presence, his guidance and his protection. While that understanding came early in my life, it has also been re-affirmed in one way or another year after year. Though, to be completely forthcoming, I also found it to be true during those years when my mind was clouded and understanding did not come until significant time had passed. I’m still sorting that out today. In any case, I know the Father loves me and, from time to time, I can even physically sense it. At least, I believe so.

I can also affirm that The Father is the creator of all things. The statement is logical for reasons too numerous to mention. But with this truth come a lot of overwhelming incidentals, like the size of the universe, the intricacies of life, the peculiarities of matter, the order of all that is, and so on. The trouble is that many of these incidentals can easily swamp both intellect and emotions. I had enough trouble embracing the Grand Canyon; how can I ever deal with the size of a galaxy or the length of the period of dinosaurs? (Did you know that dinosaurs were around for so long that there were dinosaur fossils long before the last dinosaur died?) 

It’s difficult enough to deal with these kinds of numbers for size and time. What do you do when you take one step back and try to comprehend the God who made all of them? The challenge for me is not a challenge of faith but rather a challenge of insignificance. How do you stand in God’s presence knowing that everything about him is totally, absolutely, completely beyond anything that we are, let alone our ability to comprehend?

Needless to say, there is a dichotomy created by my two experiences of the Father.

There is a simple story in Matthew, Mark and Luke which, it seems to me, is in anticipation of the excerpt from John’s Gospel for today. It is the well known account of Jesus asleep in the boat as the terrified disciples contend with the power of a storm. In all three accounts Jesus is wakened , he calms the storm and then asks two questions: ‘Why are you afraid?’ and ‘Have you no faith?’ If anybody but the one who calmed the storm had asked the question about fear I’m sure the response would have been a unanimous “DUH”. However, the second question — the one about faith — has always made me wonder. What faith, or whose faith is Jesus talking about? Faith in the Father’s protection? Faith in Jesus’ power? Faith in their own standing as from among the Chosen People whom God had saved uncountable times over the centuries?

The most common interpretation of this Scripture passage is that Jesus is challenging these disciples to reflect on their faith in him. The challenge is not out of the ordinary. At the end of his teaching on the necessity of eating his body and drinking his blood he asks his disciples if they too are going to leave. In another place, after he has asked the disciples to tell what the people say about him, he puts the question to them: “And who do you say that I am?” 

I’m not a scholar, but I read the passage differently. The question comes too early in the Gospels to be about their faith in him. Neither do I see it as a question regarding their Faith in God’s saving power. After all, they were certainly aware of what God had done in the past. But, as is all too common, our faith may waver when it must, by circumstance, fall back on our conviction of being ones chosen by God.

In today’s scene from John, Jesus gives a new paradigm. It is a model which sets aside our insignificance and relies instead on the wonder of the Father’s Incarnate Son. Up to this point, they have prayed as men who were part of the Chosen People, as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They prayed as those whose ancestors were freed from slavery in Egypt and followed Moses on the journey through the wilderness to the land that had been promised. Now, they are to pray as people who are one with the Christ, the Son of the Father and the Savior of the world. 

One of the figures of speech that Jesus refers to is that of the vine and the branches. The image says ‘you are part of me now’ and your prayer should reflect that fact. Pray as one who is a true son of God. But cautions are there. We’ve heard them before. 

“Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) 

To this we might add: “Not every one who says to the Father ‘Jesus, Jesus’ shall have his prayer heard in heaven, but he who prays as a Son of the Father and in accordance with the will of our Father who is in heaven.”

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