Quotes about Mystery

What was God up to in those first moments of creation? Was God totally invisible before the universe began? Or is there even such a thing as "before"? Why did God create at all? What was God's purpose in creating? Is the universe itself eternal? Or is the universe a creation in time as we know it—like Jesus himself?

St. John of the Cross taught that God has to work in the soul in secret and in darkness, because if we fully knew what was happening, and what Mystery/transformation/God/grace will eventually ask of us, we would either try to take charge or stop the whole process.8 No one oversees his or her own demise willingly, even when it is the false self that is dying.

Anything is a sacrament if it serves as a shortcut to the Infinite, but it will always be hidden in something that is very finite.

Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit, "Invoked or not invoked, God is still present."*3

Religious energy is in the dark questions, seldom in the answers.

For Paul, Christ is "that mystery which for endless ages has been kept secret" (Romans 16:25—27). And a well-kept secret it still remains for most Christians.

Remember, mystery isn't something that you cannot understand—it is something that you can endlessly understand!

To hold the full mystery of life is always to endure its other half, which is the equal mystery of death and doubt. To know anything fully is always to hold that part of it which is still mysterious and unknowable.

spirituality

Jesus the Christ, in his crucifixion and resurrection, "recapitulated all things in himself, everything in heaven and everything on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). This one verse is the summary of Franciscan Christology. Jesus agreed to carry the mystery of universal suffering. He allowed it to change him ("Resurrection") and—it is to be hoped—us, so that we would be freed from the endless cycle of projecting our pain elsewhere or remaining trapped inside of it.

You see, authentic God experience always "burns" you, yet does not destroy you (Exodus 3:2—3), just as the burning bush did to Moses.

All theological language is an approximation, offered tentatively in holy awe. That's the best human language can achieve. We can say, "It's like—it's similar to…," but we can never say, "It is…" because we are in the realm of beyond, of transcendence, of mystery.