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March 17

A Deeper Knowing

We are often only too aware that we really don’t understand ourselves and we really don’t know what it is we are hoping or looking for.

There is a basic theme in the biblical story that, if understood well, is a source of great joy and comfort. Simply put, the theme is that the God who has created us, redeems us in Christ, and beautifies us through the Spirit, is the God who knows us better than we know ourselves.

St. Anselm knew this well. He writes in a prayer for enemies, “Hear me always with your favor, not according as my heart wills or as my mouth asks, but as you know and will that I ought to wish and ask.”76 In other words, this father of scholasticism and Archbishop of Canterbury in the eleventh century asks that God will know him beyond his own praying and thinking. And so it is. Better to be known well by another and so come to greater self-knowledge.

This is an invitation to self-knowledge and great humility. This means God knows better what I need than what I ask for. God knows more clearly the direction for my life than the choices I make. And God knows more fully what motivates me than my own self-awareness.

As a consequence, I should feel more comfortable in entrusting myself to God rather than to my own abilities. This is truly living God’s lordship in our lives.

Thought

To be fully known and yet to be greatly loved is a blessing indeed! It is the great surprise that can nurture us.