Jesus said to the crowds:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
— John 6 44-51
A few years ago, I was reading something from Bishop Robert Barron and he essentially said there is no way that you can truly worship a God you could figure out on your own.
Today, both the reading from Acts where Philip interacts with an Ethiopian official who is reading the Word of God for the first time, and Jesus in the passage from John, remind us that we don’t figure out God but that God is revealed to us. As we see in the reading from Acts, it takes a great deal of humility to receive this revelation. We first have to admit what we do not know and what we do not understand so that we can become teachable. This revelation is never just personal, it is also communal. It is not only by immersing ourselves in the Word, but immersing ourselves in the Word and in the faith community, that our eyes gradually become opened.
As our eyes open, the seed of understanding is planted in our soul. As the Bible reminds us God’s ways are far above our own. There is absolutely no way that we can understand this without God’s assistance. It is only through this assistance that we truly reach a point where we have some sense of how much God loves us and how God wants to be loved by us.
Heavenly Father, help us to be teachable disciples who stand in awe of your greatness, and approach you with reverence and humility. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.