Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Understanding
Reflecting on our passage through Jeremiah’s prophecy, we may want to know that even the apostles who lived with Jesus did not understand what he was really about. When God calls, we struggle to hear, but we do not always discern.
Our world is one of instant messaging in which we are always expecting immediate replies to our questions. And we want these replies to make sense to us. We know that God is always with us, speaking to us, asking us to follow; and we are made to respond to this call. Yet, we so often lack something so simple but essential: understanding.
As we read this story from Mark that we have heard many times, we wonder if perhaps the apostles lacked understanding – and we as well – because we do not trust God. Are we second-guessing God? Do we believe that we have misheard God’s word to us? Do we want to believe that the universe is one big coincidence rather than think that there is an immensity to creation which we have only begun to mine?
Today Jesus reminds his friends of the times that he has sustained them out of nothing and then he asks: Do you still not understand? We might have this conversation with God frequently, and we might believe that we have not heard or understood what it is that we are to do or not do, what we are to say or not say. Thinking that we have likely gotten something scrambled in our decoding, we re-question God and present our scrambled understanding. This is the best that we can do.
Fortunately for all of us, God does not mind. In that infinite patience and wisdom that characterizes God, we are asked an unlimited number of times: Do you still not understand?
Beyond this simple question, God continues to call, continues to love. What a great and glorious God have we that God’s understanding is so immense that it encompasses and transforms all of our many misunderstandings. And so, we await again God’s words to us that always arrives with a smile: Do you still not understand? As this beneficent face of a loving parent swims vaguely before us, let us focus on our own understanding of God’s plan for the Kingdom, rather than God’s apparent miss-understanding of us.
Adapted from a reflection written on September 9, 2009.
Image from: http://allenmjones.blogspot.com/
The Noontimes 
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