Mystery

Over the centuries, deacons and priests have stood up at their pulpits on Trinity Sunday endeavoring to explain the mystery of the one God in three Persons. After defining the doctrine of the Trinity, they have used every classic example such as the shamrock, the triangle and the three-legged stool to try to clarify it for us. However, inevitably the only conclusion that they could come to was that is a mystery beyond the ability of any of us to explain or understand. Many of us have heard those sermons and gained some clarity about the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Other times we may have ended up more confused than ever. Nonetheless, because of their efforts we learned that God is mystery, and that mystery is important.

We live in a culture which is sorely lacking any sense of mystery. Science has taught us that everything can be boiled down to its physical elements. We believe that any phenomenon we cannot now understand either must have a reasonable, scientific explanation or must be a projection of our imaginations. Because of this lack of a sense of mystery, we come to worship often looking to "get something out of it" rather than to stand in awe of God's presence among his people. Our public debates about the dignity of the human person always revolve around issues of choice, convenience and cost rather than around the unrepeatable and irreducible value of woman and man made in God's image and likeness. We cannot even enjoy a magic show without trying to figure out how the magician is pulling off the illusion. Therefore, we reserve the term, "mystery", for unsolved crimes and curiosities such as Bigfoot and the chupacabras, while any appreciation for the transcendent and the sublime is bled from our vocabulary.

On the other hand, as baptized believers in Christ, our lives are charged with mystery. We recognize it in the wonders of creation. The blue sky arching over us streaked with clouds points to the power and grandeur of the God who made heaven and earth. Browsing through a farmer's market or driving past a cornfield our spirit rejoices in God's bounty and providence. When we see the diversity of peoples, their cultures and languages, we cannot help but ponder the rich creativity of the one God who sustains us in being. The universe is God's handiwork springing forth from his bosom leading us to wonder, to contemplation and to praise. As the first reading from the book of Proverbs tells us, it was all created after the pattern of the Father's wisdom which has also been understood to be the Spirit, the breath of life, and the Son, the Word, Jesus Christ. The beauty of the world and its wonders do not beg from us an explanation, but a response of awe and praise. It calls us to recognize that the Father's creating work did not end on the sixth day, but that along with the Son and the Spirit, he continues to sustain the world in being and to bring forth ever new wonders from his creating hands.

If we stand in wonder of God's creation, how much more do we recognize the mystery of his saving work! The second reading from Paul's letter to the Romans is a celebration of the Father's redeeming work through Christ which is brought to life for us through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We are not only wonderfully made but generously set free from the rebellion which separates us from our Creator and which introduced death and despair into the world. Not only has the Father desired to give us life and being, he has deigned to draw us into his own life and being, to make us his sons and daughters together with Christ, and to awaken our hearts in love through the Holy Spirit, his breath of life bringing us to new life. Again, it is not something that begs to be understood and explained, but pondered and proclaimed.

The verses of the second reading come at a pivotal time in Paul's letter to the Romans. He spends the first chapters describing what the world is like without Christ. It is a world marked by decadence, headed toward death and so consumed by despair. In the section we read today, Paul explains how different life is when it is redeemed by Christ and marked by the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. It is a life of peace with God, full of confidence and animated by a lively hope. The parallel with our contemporary western culture could not be clearer. It has jettisoned a sense of the mystery of creation to attain a mastery over it. In the meanwhile, despite the technology we have developed and the knowledge we have amassed, the question is never far from our minds: "Is this all there is?" We know in our hearts that we are made for something more than databases, test tubes and spreadsheets. That "something more" is the mystery of the Father, revealed in the Son and made present in the Holy Spirit who gives us peace, confidence and hope. If there is nothing else we as believers can bring to the world, it is a sense of the mystery of the one God in three persons who created the world in all its wonders and who calls us to share the divine life.

The being of God is an unfathomable mystery of three persons pouring themselves out in love for one another throughout all of eternity. Our western mindset makes us want to understand, explain and maybe even defend this dogma of faith. Can we hold off that tendency in favor of pondering it and rejoicing in it? Can we make this solemnity an opportunity to grow in awe of the God who saves and to develop our sense of mystery? Through our worship, can we bring that sense of mystery into a world chilled and calloused by life's cold, hard facts? Most importantly, can we bring that mystery to life by pouring ourselves out for one another in love after the example of our Triune God?