Easter 2026 - Reading #38 - Understanding
Reading
John Henry Newman, in his Grammar of Assent, explores how understanding deepens from notional to real: "It is one thing to assent to a proposition, and another to give real assent to it. A man may assent to the proposition 'There is a God' as he assents to the proposition 'The earth goes around the sun', notionally, without it touching him at all. But real assent is different: it seizes the whole man, engages his imagination, moves his heart, and transforms his conduct."
Newman continues: "Theology makes propositions; devotion embraces them. Theology teaches that God is infinite; devotion adores the Infinite One. Theology declares that God is just; devotion trembles before the Just Judge. The difference is not between truth and falsehood, but between knowing about and knowing, between holding a truth in the mind and being held by it in the heart."
For Newman, the gift of understanding is precisely this movement from notional to real assent, from holding truths about God in the mind to being held by the reality of God in the depths of the soul. Understanding does not add new information; it makes existing information real.
Reflection
Thirty-nine days into Easter, Newman names the gap that the gift of understanding bridges: the gap between knowing about God and knowing God. Between holding a truth in the mind and being held by it in the heart. Between saying "God is love" and being seized, shaken, and transformed by the reality that God is love.
This distinction resonates with anyone who has ever felt their faith was more intellectual than alive, who could pass a theology exam but has never been moved to tears by prayer, who affirms the Creed but has never felt its truth burn in their chest. Newman does not say the intellectual affirmation is worthless, it is true, and truth matters. But he insists that there is something beyond it: a real assent that engages the whole person, that makes faith not merely a set of propositions but a living relationship.
The Easter season is uniquely positioned to catalyze this movement from notional to real. The resurrection is not an abstract doctrine; it is an event, a thing that happened, in history, to a real man, in a real tomb. The gift of understanding takes this event and makes it real to us, not just historically true but personally transformative. When you say "Christ is risen," do you feel the weight of those words? The gift of understanding is what makes the difference between reciting a formula and proclaiming a fact that has shattered the foundations of death. Ask for it. The Spirit gives generously to those who ask.