Lent with the Early Church Fathers Day11

Day 11

Lent with the Early Church Fathers

A daily post from Tom Bandy 

Based on Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers (Eds. Christopher D. Hudson, J. Alan Sharrer, and Lindsay Vanker: Hendrickson Press, 1999) 

Hidden truth 

St. Jerome 

In Revelation, a book is shown that is sealed with seven seals. If you give it to someone learned and said, “Read this,” he would answer, “I can’t because it is sealed.” There are many today who consider themselves learned but the Scriptures are a sealed book to them. They can’t open it without the help of him who has the key. In the Acts of the Apostles there was a holy eunuch. When he was reading Isaiah, Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you read?” He answered, “How can I except some man should guide me?”  

Then Philip came and showed him how Jesus was concealed in the letters. An excellent teacher! That same hour, the eunuch believed and was baptized. He became one of the faithful and a saint. He wasn’t a student any longer but a master. And he found more in the church’s writings there in the wilderness than he had ever found in the synagogue. It is useless to try to teach what you don’t know, and – if I may speak with some warmth – it is even worse still to be ignorant of your own ignorance. 

TGB: It is worse to be ignorant of your own ignorance than to teach what you don’t know. Many of us teach without knowing the full depth and breadth and mystery of what we are trying to teach. There is nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is not to admit it to others, ourselves, and to God. That is vanity. Ignorance of our own ignorance is what costs a leader his or her credibility.