On Mystery

Before we get theological there’s two main senses to mystery that are pretty simple to mention for clarity’s sake: one is insight (in religion this is usually a limited and specific “revelation”), and the other is knowing the boundary of knowledge (for a domain) and how to navigate that space for the most part. So, by way of analogy, we may not be able to see the edge of the universe with a telescope, but we can say a lot about the mystery beyond, cause science. Same goes with theolgical science. The third sense of mystery, the minority one, is the one saints are privileged to, and is akin to mystical prowess. With that said, let’s get into mystery.

Mystery represents the existential position in which a human finds themselves, set in contrast to God and creation. In Christ, mystery is seen as the unique avenue to knowledge of God—knowledge that we otherwise wouldn’t have. Yet this understanding is granted through grace; it’s not of our own making, and as such, it’s limited. Typically, ‘mystery’ refers to insights into truths that are based on the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Mystery, it’s the place man holds against the grand cosmic backdrop, standing face to face with the divine and the created world. A position of wonder and bewilderment, a fishing boat adrift in a sea of starlight and shadow. In Christ, we find a lighthouse in that foggy vastness, a guide to truths otherwise hidden from us. Yet, even then, this knowledge comes as grace, a gift bestowed, not of our doing and so, naturally limited. We stumble upon shards of the divine, glimmers of truth, only by virtue of the lantern that is Christ’s revelation.

We are, each of us, custodians of a unique consciousness, an individual reality spun from the threads of perception and thought, a point of view that none else can fully comprehend or share. It is the world thinking, yes, but through you, in your particular place and time. But in the mind of God, this isolation is not a feature, not a constriction, but something He dons and surpasses for us.

God, we must understand, is a being wholly different from our poor, flawed, mortal selves. His existence is not just another self among selves, but rather a realm beyond our comprehension, a mind far removed from any we know. Yet, by Grace’s sweet favour, we are sometimes granted a fleeting glimpse into this celestial consciousness, a mind so vast, so profound, that it could never be our own.

Countless Pages of Scripture have voices here, but let’s pick out some from the cacophony:

“Who, indeed, can comprehend a man’s thoughts but his own spirit within? In the same vein, the thoughts of God are privy only to the Spirit of God.”

“Indeed, the mystery of our faith is great: Manifested in flesh, justified in spirit, seen by the celestial, heralded among the nations, faith kept alive through the ages, ascended to glory.”

“All has been entrusted to me by the Father. No one can truly know the Son, save for the Father, and none can know the Father but the Son, and those to whom the Son wishes to unveil Him.”

These verses paint a picture, not just of a divine mystery, but of a loving interaction, a generous revelation from an incomprehensible God to his mortal creations, a gift of Grace allowing us to peer, however briefly, into the very mind of the divine.

See also the glossary entry on mystery: God is Immanentia Omnis: a glossary – RobertDryer