The Mystery of God

God is a mystery. How could it be otherwise for us? He is the One who is beyond us, the One who made us and all that is seen and unseen. As the scriptures put it, he is: “The light [that] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn. 1:5). He dwells in light that is so bright that it blinds our searching eyes and our questioning minds. And yet, (and this is the greatest mystery) we have come to know him because he willingly let go of his divinity and became one of us, taking on our humanity, even our suffering, even dying for us on a cross for love’s sake (See: Phil. 2: 5-11).

The great prophet of the Old Testament, Isaiah, expresses this mystery writing: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Is. 55: 8-9). And, again, Isaiah speaks of this mystery: “Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,/ or has instructed him as his counselor?/ Whom did he consult to gain knowledge?/ Who taught him the path of judgement,/ or showed him the way to understanding” (Is. 40: 13-14)? Job says this: “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above–what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below–what can you know?” (Job 11: 7-8).

As Christians, we know that this Mystery has a human face and a human name, the most holy name of Jesus, a name so holy that at the speaking of it ‘every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth should bend” (Phil. 2:10). Through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ we have come face to face with God. He was known to the writers of the Gospels in his Person. They heard his voice, felt his touch, and spoke with him as his friends and companions. They ate at the table with him, heard his laughter, and witnessed his tears. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us of how he touched the lepers, the blind, the deaf, and the dumb with his own hands and healed them. They were there for his Sermon on the Mount, and when he multiplied the fish and the loaves. They witnessed his suffering, his death, and his Resurrection. This seeming paradox is at the center of the mystery.

God, whose thoughts and ways are so far beyond our finite limits, made himself known to us in Jesus: “Whoever sees me sees the Father” (Jn. 14:9). The transcendent One became man and touched us then and, in the continuing light of this great mystery, he remains with and among us now. He dwells in individual hearts, the hearts of those who believe in him and who follow him humbly and willingly. And he remains in the community of the Church nourishing it, sustaining it, enlivening it with his Holy Spirit, calling it to be his hands and his voice in a troubled world. He whose name is I Am, through is Son, Jesus, revealed how he would remain with us today when he spoke the following words to the crowds gathered before him at Capernaum saying: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst…For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day” (Jn. 6: 35-40).

Jesus is as close to us now as he was to his disciples when he walked the earth. He desires to have a personal relationship with each one of us, here and now. And his greatest desire is that we all be one in him. Jesus prayed for this saying: “I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn. 17:20).

This, then, is the Mystery: God is both beyond us and within us. He who was before us, who is above us, at the same time, waits with infinite patience to meet each one of us in the depths of our own heart. The God of the universe, who is the fullness of Love, Love beyond our contemplation, did not abandon the world even though it had rebelled (and continues to rebel) against him. Rather, he willingly chose to enter into it, made himself small enough to enter into our smallness, our brokenness, in order to heal our wounds, and to make eternity available to us once again by conquering sin and death on the cross, once and for all. This is a great mystery.

Indeed, for those who believe, it is the very core and foundation of all reality. And as such, it is infinitely worthy of our humble worship and of our daily commitment to live in accord with God’s insurmountable wisdom. It is through believing this Mystery, and in living it out in our daily lives, with the help of God’s grace, that we can become one with God and with one another. “Lord, we believe, help our unbelief” (Mk. 9:24).