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Faith leads beyond, though through, religion into falling in Love with Mystery manifesting in the world. Why? I refer to St. Maximus the Confessor (b. c. 580-662):
… God is breath, and the breath of the wind is shared by all;
nothing shuts it in, nothing holds it prisoner.
(Andrew Louth, Ed., The Wisdom of the Greek Fathers)
The impenetrability of the Divine is a way of Christianity transcending itself and more wholly enjoying the mystery and pervasiveness of the Trinity.
St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 337-395) writes, reminding us to remain open to the ever-unfolding Mystery:
No matter how long you might stay at the spring, you would always be beginning to see the water. For the water never stops flowing, and it is always beginning to bubble up again. It is the same with one who fixes his gaze on the infinite beauty of God. It is constantly being discovered anew, and it is always seen as something new and strange in comparison with what the mind has always understood. And as God continues to reveal himself, man continues to wonder…. (Ibid.)
Karl Rahner (1904-1984) speaks of apophasis, or God’s unknowableness: “In his spiritual existence, man will always fall back on a sacred mystery as the very ground of his being, … We call this God.”
(“In Search of a Short Formula of the Christian Faith,” Trans. Theodore L. Westow. In Karl Rahner, Ed. The Pastoral Approach to Atheism).
Christ Jesus is Kataphasis, or Knowableness, of the Father, Who is Apophasis, Unknowableness. Jesus implies this to Philip:
"If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"
(St. John 14.7-9, ESV)
Kataphatic leads into apophatic, and vice versa. In knowing God, we do not know God; in not knowing God, we know God.
Scripture Meditation
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known"
—I Corinthians 13.12, ESV
Rahner says we call the Mystery “God.” What other words or phrases can you think of appropriate to refer to God? How is our relationship with God like all healthy relationships?
*First edition, August 7, 2006
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