Dear People Whom God Loves,
Holy Mystery This is the phrase the great German theologian Karl Rahner used to point to God. He is emphatic that we can’t prove the existence of God. But he uses this phrase to show a reasonable foundation for our belief in God.
Rahner starts by looking at us human persons who have the capacity to know and to love.
First our knowing. We innately want to learn and know. The curiosity of a child shows us how we have this from the beginning. We have questions. Questions are the drive to know. When we learn an answer to a question, it brings up more questions. This is something that never ends. (This can get distorted in us humans by our fear of learning new things. So we tell ourselves that we already have the truth. We don’t need new insights.)
This is what drives scientists. As more is learned, more questions arise. When we are engrossed in a subject, we want to keep learning more and more. If we knew everything, our joy would be diminished. We need the journey to be happy. This drive for ceaselessly exploring makes it reasonable that there exists infinite mystery that will never be fully plumbed. This is why for Rahner, the state we call heaven is not to k now fully the Holy Mystery we call God but the thrill of always learning more and more.
Second our loving. As we learn to love, we want our love to deepen and broaden. This is true of the love we give and the love we receive. It is exciting for us to have the love we have for a special
person or persons in our lives to deepen and for the deepening of their love for us. It is also exciting for the love that we give or receive to broaden to more and more people. In our very limited condition
here on earth, the degree of intimacy will vary greatly as it broadens. Nothing makes us more what we are called to be than loving. That is why loving brings happiness. Also, we don’t want love to remain stagnant. There is a mysterious thrill in love deepening and broadening. That is why we can see heaven as the state where, as we are more deeply enfolded in infinite love, the deepening and broadening never ends.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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