Speculation is easier to choose then intimacy and vulnerability.  I can rely on my own power and knowledge easier than trusting in the graciousness and goodness of God.  I know me, I can trust me, and I can do it the right way.  There is a maxim that states if you want it done the right way do it yourself.  When self-reliance and speculation become my friend there is no room for any other.  I isolate myself and I isolate the other.    

In the Gospel, Jesus is being isolated.  He goes up to the feast of Tabernacles “in secret” and upon arrival speculation about his person begins to circle the rumor mills.  The whispers conjecture “But we know where he is from.  When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”   All those speculating are standing in front of the second person of the Trinity and, yet, their knowing is above his person.       

Jesus is always consistent.  He is consistently revealing the truth of God: “Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.  I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”  God is three persons, God is true, and, God is love.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Jn 3:16    

At times, it is easy for me to forget, to go back into self-reliance, speculation, and lack entering into communion.  St. Teresa of Avila wrote a beautiful prayer aid:

Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing frighten you,

All things are passing away:

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things. 

Whoever has God lacks nothing;

God alone suffices.   

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