Living with our questions

In today’s Gospel, John 10: 22-30, some Jews corner Jesus on the Portico of Solomon and ask Him bluntly: “How long are you going to keep us in suspense. If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  We are not that much unlike those people wanting their questions, their confusion, their doubts cleared up once and for all.  We do the same thing.  Do we not ask, for instance, how long we have to put up with a distressing situation without any clear cut answers.  Do we not badger each other about how long  we have to wait for better times, for answers to questions about the economy, about war, about terrorism. Do we not corner our spouses and/or our children demand an answer to something about their lives that have been bothering us for a long time.

We want to trust God. We want to have faith. We want to grow in or fall in love. We want to reconcile, or whatever.  But we want “it” instantaneously.  Jesus’ response to the questioning Jews is: I’ve told you already. If you would be observant and pay attention to the works I do, you would know the answer to your questions.  Is it possible that if we would be listening to one another, to innuendos in each other’s behavior, to hints around us, to  the Lord in the Scriptures, to  the Sunday homilies and liturgies, to the events of the day, to the quiet of nature,  to the whisperings of our hearts that we would find the answers to that which throws us into asking a frenzy of questions of each other or of ourselves.  Jesus, I believe, asks us to weigh the evidence before us and not get into forcing answers.  God Himself will not force an answer from us, as He waits for our total self-giving to Himself as Savior and to each other in love and forgiveness.  He waits! He know when we are not ready and respects readiness. Can we do the same?