Faith is certainly demanding, but Jesus has come to make believing easier. His miracles, His words, His presence – this closeness of God to us is unprecedented grace which ought to make us believe with great fervor. What we see, however, is the contrary. Caphernaum was the city most loved and cherished by Christ. It was practically His headquarters, the place probably referred to in the scriptures by “his city.” Some of the twelve were from there, He gave the discourse on the bread of life at the synagogue in that city. He performed so many miracles there. We should stop to consider what events and circumstances we have received as helps in our life of faith. If we take them for granted and begin to become lukewarm, we are all the more to be condemned. Jerusalem rejected its messiah although it had all the full revelation of God – its terrible lack of faith excuses the apparent depravity of Sodom.
Trinity Sunday
Priests are fond of reminding everyone on this particular Sunday, if they choose to actually preach about the Trinity, how hard it is to avoid heresy. The secret is to keep it short. I’m sure that appeals to most of the people in the pews, but we could end up living our Christian lives as though the Trinity was some sort of enormously complicated and “risky” mystery that we had better not try to understand. Now while it is true that we will never understand the Trinity (even in heaven!), we shouldn’t let that stop us from having our hearts and minds expanded if not blown away while we are still here below. Jesus’ whole mission coming in the flesh was to make the whole mystery of God – the Trinity – accessible to us. When Philip complained about just wanting to be shown the Father, Jesus didn’t respond, “Sorry Philip, I know it’s hard to understand, there are a lot of Theological complexities involved, and you’ll never understand anyway so just believe it and don’t worry that it doesn’t mean anything to you.” Jesus actually said, “Do you still not know me Philip? Whoever sees me has seen the Father.” Fortunately, the key to a meaningful encounter with the Trinity has nothing to do with understanding it rationally.