Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - September 27, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
“The elusive Higgs Boson is at last found – and the universe gets a little less mysterious.” (Time Magazine, July 23, 2012, p 33.) We are intent on getting rid of mystery. Science, of course, must probe the macro and the micro. But even though astrophysicists delve deeper into this amazing universe, we cannot but be struck by how each new discovery opens up new depths.
In popular language we are justified in saying how mysterious it is. Even the birth of a child, despite what we know about the science of it all, still seems mysterious enough to us that we say: "What a miracle!" (And we've all heard: "Why she ever married that guy is a mystery.")
In our thinking about difficult subjects, mystery can mean giving up prematurely on reason. The hard-pressed teacher, badgered by some precocious mite, may finally have to say: “It's a mystery.” But the word mystery has a much more profound sense. It refers to the unfathomable depths of reality, both human and (for lack of a better word) non-human.
While wiping out mystery may be a legitimate goal in science, in religion doesn't it seem more questionable? Doesn't it ignore the complexity of human relations and decisions? Religious leaders too easily bow to our desire for clarity.
The Catholic Church occasionally says that something is "defined." Doing so it skates close to simplifying mystery. If we reflect at all, we should resist too much clarity regarding complex situations and the awesome reality of God. Going through a siege like Covid-19 surely must have shaken some of our certainties about life and left room for mystery.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
