Easter 2026 - Reading #36 - Understanding | Catholic Daily Reflection

Saint Paul prays for the Ephesians to receive precisely this gift: "I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe" (Ephesians 1:16-19).

Paul continues in a later chapter: "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Paul prays for a knowledge that "surpasses knowledge", an understanding that goes beyond mere information into the experiential comprehension of a love so vast that it has breadth, length, height, and depth.

Thirty-seven days into Easter, Paul prays for the very gift we are exploring, and his prayer reveals its nature. He asks for "the eyes of your hearts" to be enlightened. Not the eyes of the mind, though the mind is included. The eyes of the heart, that deep center of the person where intellect, will, and affection converge. Understanding is not a purely intellectual gift; it is a gift of the whole person, a way of seeing with one's entire being.

And what does Paul want the Ephesians to understand? Not theological propositions, primarily. He wants them to comprehend "the breadth and length and height and depth" of Christ's love. The gift of understanding, as Paul experiences it, is above all an understanding of love, the particular, specific, personal love of Christ for his people. This is not sentimental. It is the most consequential knowledge in the universe: the knowledge that the Creator of all things loves you with a love that surpasses everything you can imagine.

The Easter season is the ideal time for this gift to deepen, because Easter is the definitive proof of that love. The resurrection is not merely a miracle. It is a declaration: the love that went to the cross has conquered the last enemy. Death could not hold it. The grave could not contain it. And the gift of understanding invites us not merely to believe this but to see it, to comprehend it with the eyes of the heart, to be overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of a love that stretches in every direction without limit. Today, sit with Paul's prayer. Ask the Spirit to enlighten the eyes of your heart. And be prepared: what you may see could change everything.

Walk this season with us.