Christophe Dumont
“At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father. And no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him’” (Mt 11:25–27).
1. Read this passage again quietly: it is a remarkable prayer of Jesus, a thanksgiving that speaks of both the Father and us. “These things” refer to “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” as our Lord expresses a little further (cf. Mt 13:14).
You cannot learn these mysteries through scientific rules or mere reasoning. Only when you open yourself to Jesus' story, His word, and the Spirit with faith, can the Father “reveal” something from them to you. Even one who is “wise and prudent” must take a step further and surrender to that greater and divine something that the Father radiates in Jesus.
2. For it is Jesus who makes the Father known to us. In this sense, Jesus responds to Thomas: “No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” And to Philip: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me” (cf. John 14:6,9).
In Jesus, God's “mystery” is clarified: not fully, but sufficiently for us to find in Him the “way” to the Father (cf. John 14:6) and to know the “Son”: God from God and Light from Light, as we pray in the Nicene Creed.
Moreover, it is interesting to observe that in the Old Testament, God is referred to as Father only four times. In the New Testament, which contains far fewer books, this occurs 258 times. This astonishing novelty comes from Jesus. It is because He spoke of God as “Father.”
3. Let us now pause at this short and mysterious statement: “No one knows the Son.” Do you think you know Jesus? Surely, you know Him and are aware of many things about Him from the gospel, from prayer, from your studies.
But do you know Him thoroughly? Deeply? Can you “decipher” Him? You are mistaken! As “Son,” Jesus has His personal identity in the Trinity.
He is the most beloved and at the same time the completely Unknown person on this earth.
Countless books have been written about Him, but none can unveil His divine depth. We have nothing but “small portraits” of Him, as one contemplative person expressed it: mere glimpses, partial representations, snapshots. But to explore His innermost reality? That is not possible in this world. Truly, “no one knows the Son” deeply.
“Faith truly gives us God,” wrote Saint John of the Cross, but in a dark way, we see nothing but an “outline.”
“Now we see in a mirror, dimly,” writes Saint Paul, but in heaven “we will see face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). Then we will know Jesus fully in His divine depth.
4. Nevertheless! In this life, knowing Him is less important than loving. To love: that is the first commandment, Jesus' explicit desire. He asks us to “abide in Him” (John 15:4), being united with Him. Our entire existence can be hidden in Him: our work and speaking, listening and resting.
He is present. In a hidden yet real way. He is the “treasure hidden in a field” of our lives (Mt 13:44). He is that precious pearl. He is very close to us. Attentive. Accessible. Loving. He is the force that urges.
5. The more we love someone, the more in us, even if hidden, grows that knowledge of the heart which we may not be able to express in learned terms but which helps us to know “him” better, to know “her” better.
Love makes you perceptive: every detail regarding the beloved person penetrates you, every hint you understand, every message you receive. The psychology of the other becomes intimately familiar to you. This is not a “scientific” knowledge. It is a deeper knowledge: intuitive knowledge, almost “natural,” “knowledge of wisdom.”
Saints, great in their love for Christ, speak abundantly of this. Paul feels “seized” by Christ: for him “the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ surpasses all” (Phil 3:8). Saint John of the Cross talks about “dark loving knowledge” of the Lord and compares it to a “gold mine,” full of unknown veins that need to be continually discovered.
Elisabeth of the Trinity asks in her famous prayer that “each moment may lead me deeper into the depth of Your Mystery.” In the Story of a Soul, Thérèse of Lisieux writes that the only thing she strives for is the “science of love.”
To know Christ means to find life. From this springs the great desire of the Apostle Paul to lead us into the “unsearchable riches of Christ,” that we may “know the love that surpasses all knowledge” (Eph 3:8,19).
(Translated from French by VoH.)
