"Understand" | Reflection by Jeremy O'Neill

Understanding is a complicated concept to…well…understand. As a graduate student, I feel like I am often chasing understanding. Education and a pursuit of knowledge are values we lift up as a society, especially in a place like New Haven. But the more schooling I receive, I don’t necessarily feel myself understanding more things. Graduate school for me has been more about the journey of accepting and learning what I do not understand than gaining any new understanding. I believe that no amount of theology courses can help us to completely understand who God is, especially when we think about how God is different things to different people.

What I do believe, however, is that one of the things that makes God who God is, is God’s ability to understand us. So while we humans attempt to understand Calculus or Shakespeare or Theology or ourselves, God is there understanding all that we are and all that we bring. And this understanding comes from God creating us and it comes from God loving us.

To truly be understood is a beautiful thing in a relationship. And as we see Jesus deal with fear, anger, sadness, and ultimately death in this most holy of weeks, we can see God’s understanding of us as we deal with all of those very human experiences.