Being Worthy of Knowledge

Not every question should be answered, not every question should I expect an answer to

In at least some church traditions, just prior to reading the pericope from the Gospel, the priest or pastor prays, “And that we may be accounted worthy to hear the holy Gospel, let us pray to the Lord.” The people respond, “Amen.” I’ve heard that petition several hundred times over the last decade or so. But I just recently noticed it.

To my modern ears, the petition seems like a strange one. What does it mean to be worthy to hear something, to learn something. Why wouldn’t everyone automatically be worthy of learning something? Imagine being told you couldn’t read a book because you weren’t worthy of it. Or imagine being told you couldn’t hear the answer to some question because you weren’t worthy of it.

Yet, it is true. There are things we aren’t worthy of knowing. The Bible refers to this as “casting pearls before swine.” Plutarch tells his audience, “That is a question that demands a long answer and one that may not convince those who value wealth, luxury, and power more than security, benevolence, and self-sufficiency combined with justice.”¹

Some things we just aren’t ready for—with respect to our maturity, as when a child asks where a baby comes from or, after a Sunday School lesson, what circumcision is. Some things we just aren’t ready for—with respect to our education, as when someone who has only studied arithmetic wants to know why a calculus problem works the way it does. And some things we just aren’t ready for—with respect to our values, as when someone who values wealth cannot receive an answer that requires them to value wisdom higher than wealth.

We have to be accounted worthy, if we want to be ready to be ready to receive an answer to every question we have. We cannot expect that everyone can and should deign to respond to every question, every objection, every concern we have. We just might not understand the bigger picture or the value system behind the answer.

This affects how we learn, too. Not only ought I desire to be accounted worthy to hear words of truth. I ought also to recognize that it is not in the best interest of truth for it to be shared with everyone who inquires after it. This may sound counter-intuitive, but it is the case. Socrates warns that words can become dead words to others. The words themselves cannot defend themselves, and once in the hands of the unworthy, these words can be twisted and used to justify all manner of wickedness.

We must, as teachers and parents, give answers to our students and children that they are indeed ready for. And until then, we must pray, “That they may be accounted worthy to receive the Truth, let us pray to the Lord.”

1. The Lawgivers, Plutarch, tr. by C. Scot Hicks and David V. Hicks, 2019, p. 152.