The Scriptures bid us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” On its face, it is an odd statement. In a number of languages, the word for knowing is related to the word for seeing. Again, there is a sensory element (taste and see) in the acquisition of knowledge. “Adam knew his wife, and she conceived…” I will say nothing about the details of what is implied in this common biblical phrase. However, we are wrong if we imagine that it is an effort of delicacy to avoid talking about sex (as if the Scriptures were ever delicate). The mere act of sexual intercourse fails to speak rightly about the profound experience of communion that it entails. Adam knew his wife.
Knowledge, true knowledge, is communion. In some manner (or through a variety of manners) we enter into a commonality with someone or something and it becomes a part of us. We describe our culture as the “information society,” and possibly fret that the information machines (AI) present a competitive threat to our hegemony. This is not a concern driven by the power of machines – it is a revelation about how thin our own existence has become. At one time, a library was a “storehouse of knowledge.” Today, the books are reading themselves and there is no knowledge.
Every child in America (surely) has read about the Grand Canyon or watched a video. I first saw it “in person” when I was in my 50s. Nothing had prepared me for the experience. It “looked” like the pictures, but no picture can begin to communicate (communion) the actual experience of its enormity. I felt it in the pit of my stomach, and deeper. I can now only speak of it with a sort of reverence. I can say, “Have you been to the Grand Canyon?” If you have not been there, then you simply cannot know it. There is no “information” that compares to this. Taste and see that the Canyon is big.
This reality is inherent to our existence. That we have so largely departed from it is simply part of the distortion of our present culture. This becomes supremely important when we turn our attention to other human beings.
That Adam “knew” Eve and she conceived is simply the most profound and intimate form of human communion and knowledge-by-communion. It points, however, to the nature of that knowledge, even when it takes other forms. It comes with permission, with agreement, with give-and-take, with patience and attention. Our casual, and frequently noisy, conversations are not the means of communion. Often enough, our communion with other persons comes in the context of a shared meal. Of course, our drive-by, fast-food culture has diminished this experience also. We eat too quickly, and in an isolated manner.
Frequently, we avoid opportunities for communion with others by staring at our phones. The action known as “doom scrolling” is, in fact, simply the action of “akedia” (“sloth” in some translations). It is one of the passions that drag us into a state of stupor, a kind of numbing mindlessness.
To know a person, or, to truly know anything, requires that we pay attention, that we are as ready to receive as we are to give. Such knowledge-in-communion is a recognition that our lives are not self-created but are received as a gift from each person we encounter, each thing that comes into our life. Who we are is a story being told to us by God. It is a story of love: “this is my beloved.”
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You have vouchsafed me, O Lord,
that this corruptible temple (my human flesh),
should be united to Your holy flesh,
that my blood should be mingled with yours.
Therefore I am your transparent
and translucent member
I am transported out of myself.
O Marvel!
I see myself such as I have become:
Fearful and, at the same time,
ashamed of myself;
I venerate you and I fear you,
And I know not where to shelter
now how to use these new,
dreadful and divinized members …
I who am but straw,
receive the fire and I am enflamed
without being consumed,
as of old the burning bush of Moses.
– St. Symeon the New Theologian
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