Dear People Whom God Loves,
We have been reflecting about God as Holy Mystery. Holy Mystery is the phrase that Karl Rahner uses to point to what we call God. Rahner emphasizes how radically mysterious God is. How different and how far beyond our understanding. He then proceeds to talk on how incredibly close Holy Mystery is to us. He speaks about Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
First Jesus. In John’s gospel “the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus lived in history. He was a Jew. He lived in the culture of first-century Galilee. Like all of us, he had our physical and psychological limitations. This was Holy Mystery’s self-communication to the world in Jesus. When Jesus preached the reign of God, the Word was telling us how Holy Mystery calls us to live and points to what Holy Mystery is like. Jesus healed people from disease and sin. He drew “sinners” to him and welcomed them. He ate with the people that the “good” people shunned. He shows what Holy Mystery wants us to do with his parables of the prodigal son and the lost sheep, and this also points to what Holy Mystery is like.
In his suffering and death, Jesus showed that God was in solidarity with all people who suffer and are abused. His resurrection shows that there is hope for all who have been abused and that death is not the end.
Rahner also holds that Holy Mystery wanted to dwell among us because of love. It happens that because of sin, that dwelling among us included redemption; but that Holy Mystery so loves us that that dwelling among us would have happened whether redemption was necessary or not. We know ourselves that while we want to be with someone we love when they are down, we want to be with them whether they are up or down.
Holy Mystery is overflowing, self-emptying love.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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