Saturday April 9, 2011

John 9:28-31

"The Pharisees ridiculed the blind man and said, 'You are that man's disciple; we are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from.' The man answered and said to them, 'This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.' They answered and said to him, 'You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?' Then they threw him out."

I think that I wrote something, somewhere in the midst of this blog's history, about that phrase before, "Are you trying to teach us?" It might have been from a different story - does that objection pop up often?

Well, the comment about God speaking to Moses certainly fits in with yesterday's entry. We believe that in the far away and long ago God spoke directly to His chosen prophets. We believe in Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments carved in the stone by lightning. But if someone dared to claim that today? For a start, that person would be a threat to everything - because if someone has a direct line to God then what they say goes. Because they have that direct connection that the rest of us don't - and I think we've become comfortable with uncertainty or at least ambiguity. We've become accustomed to and comfortable with no one having it quite figured out, with knowing that the Church is a human institution, with knowing that people make mistakes and that priests from the local pastor up to the Bishop of Rome are just people.

And goodness knows I like it. After all, my faithful readers have certainly seen me spin just about everything into whatever issue is currently on my mind. And anyone who's seen two religious people debate (or a religious person and a former believer still up on their scripture and catechism) knows that you can find support for most ideas somewhere in the Bible - especially if you're willing to dive into the more obscure books and occasionally take things out of context.

So the idea of someone like Jesus, someone to whom God listens and who can hear and thus know the true mind of God...let's just say it's always kind of a relief when oracles and prophets talk in metaphor and what can sound like little more than gibberish. Because then we can interpret again and again it's a human translator prone to error and reevaluation and there's a comfort in that. In not having to know exactly what is right and wrong. In being able to determine that for ourselves. It's the appeal of the Forbidden Fruit - to become like God, knowing right from wrong.

I don't think that God's Truth, if we could know it, would be handed down in a string of absolutes, but I know there would be things that would discomfort me, would discomfort all of us, and I think it's our duty to seek those things out. To never stop questioning and examining our faith until we can get closer to that Truth - so that we need not fear someone who can hand down the Truth of God.

Especially because I believe that if we open our hearts to that Truth, if we seek it, we will stop fearing it so very much. We will find our poor substitute of human error so ridiculous in comparison. We will find only love there, we will find true wisdom. And we will never understand it, but we will always find it there to guide us.

So why do we fear it?

I suppose just because it would change everything. And that's frightening. But everything can be better. And I think it is our duty as Christians to continually seek it.

Dear Lord, help me to seek and find Your way and Your truth. Help me to never be afraid to know Your will, to trust You and Your wisdom and love to guide me and never be afraid of Your answer to my questions and dilemmas.