A BLANK SLATE












At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Jesus loved little children and I think this was because he found it very easy to talk to them. Innocent and unpretentious, children are easily teachable, unlike many adults who are so puffed up (I use the term with deliberation) with knowledge they believe they are smarter and cleverer than everybody else. Consequently they are unteachable. I believe it is for this reason that Jesus called to him men who were “unschooled and ordinary” (see Acts 4:13) because they would be prepared to listen to what he had to say and learn what he had to teach. 

Being intelligent is not a bad thing, but it often gets in the way of discovering the truth. Being knowledgeable is not a bad thing either, but this too often makes one blind to things that should be obvious. One always has to be open to learning, open to looking at things from a different perspective, open to the realization that one does not and cannot know everything. People with knowledge stuffed in their heads are like glasses that are full of water. You can’t put in more water unless some of it is emptied out. Better, then, to start with a glass that is empty, no?

This is one of the reasons why Jesus chose these twelve men to be his disciples. Their minds were like blank slates, ready to be written upon. And Jesus wrote his wonderful truths upon them, leading him to say, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” He would say the same thing when the apostles asked him why he spoke to people in parables (see Matthew 13:1-33).

Therefore, if we are to become wise in the ways of God, it is better to wipe our minds clean of whatever knowledge and ideas we might have written on it, and let God write what he wishes on it afresh. However, we need to be aware that what God teaches us can fill the blackboard up pretty soon, again making us believe we know a lot, whereas in truth we still don’t know much. Therefore, every now and then, we need to take a duster to the blackboard of our minds, wipe it clean, and let God write afresh again.

And Jesus will say to us what he said to the apostles, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see ....

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here: https://youtu.be/uoyc4OSsI3k

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