Have you ever noticed on the back of a hotel door, they post information about your hotel rate as well as instructions of what to do in case of a fire? Ever since I was a member of the fire evacuation team at my former job, this is something that I always check out when I stay at a hotel. I want to share an actual description from one such hotel:
In case of fire in your room, please, keep your cold blood, do not shout “on the fire”. If you can not master the fire, leave your room by taking care to close the door. Prevent the direction or the staff. In case of hearing of the alarm giving the order of evacuation of the hotel, please, leave your room as soon as possible, close your door and gain the exit without desperation by borrowing the stair.
Do you understand what you are reading? That is the question not only for this hotel sign but also in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8: 26-40). Today we hear about a man who was reading what the prophet Isaiah had written about Jesus and he didn’t quite understand what it meant.
Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples came along and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” Then Philip began to speak and he told the man the good news about Jesus. With Philip’s help the man understood the message of God’s love, asked to be baptized, and he went on his way rejoicing.
Each of us has many choices to make each day. Some choices are easy. Some are more difficult. Sometimes we don’t have enough information to make good choices. Sometimes, we need a little bit of extra help to better understand. We can look to those people we trust to help us make good choices: parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, co-workers, clergy, or someone from a religious order. And often times, what we really need to do is take our concerns and our confusion to prayer.
Prayer is a beautiful way to help us understand the many questions that we face in our lives. I often suggest that people sit with scripture in prayer. And that’s why I love the prayer form of Lectio Divina (or divine reading). It gives us the opportunity to read (lectio) from scripture, reflect (meditation) on what the passage is saying to us, express (oratio) to God the prayers that arise from the scripture passage, and then to rest silently with God (contemplatio) remaining open to the quiet fullness of God’s love.
We need to allow time in our schedule to not only read scripture, but to also understand what we are reading. Therefore, let us seek the Lord with our whole heart in prayer and ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who will enlighten our hearts and give us the understanding to hear what God is truly saying to us out of love.
