Today, in this brief text from Saint John; Jesus appears fundamentally as a teacher. He is eager to “tell us things”. Those things that save and were prophesized, in different ways, in the Old Testament. But He has to measure this teaching “As you are not able for it yet”. Sometimes these truths are not easy to assimilate, the spirit of truth “will guide you to the fullness of truth”.

The accumulation of things that Jesus tells us makes up the repository of the faith. To believe is first to know. The Church invites us to “reason”, to delve into what Jesus tells us. If there is no reasoning that digs deeply, if there is no permanent and sound religious information, then faith is reduced to a “fireside chat”.

—It hadn’t occurred to me Lord that Sunday Mass is a time to listen to “things you tell me”. Is it not time that I place the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a place of honor in my home? And to read it of course, to study it!