“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6).
Over the last few days, I was reflecting on the various mysteries of our faith.
There are mysteries relating to the perfect and simultaneous humanity and divinity of Christ. Christ is Perfect Man AND Perfect God at the same time. His Humanity in no way diminishes His Divinity, and His Divinity in no way makes His Humanity easier to bear or the temptations He experienced any less formidable.
There are mysteries relating to the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. This Sacred Sacrament contains the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. That wafer of bread and that sip of wine is GOD HIMSELF – ALL OF HIM… How do we explain that to someone without faith?
I guess, that is why faith is such a gift to us, because as Saint Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see, the reward of that faith it to see what you believe.”
And there are other mysteries of our faith as well. There is the Communion of Saints and the Forgiveness of Sins. These are things that we can never adequately understand with our lowly human soul on this earth.
And then – of course – there is the mystery that is at the basis of our entire faith… The mystery of the Holy Trinity.
For how are we to ever attempt to understand our Creed though we repeat it in Mass on Sundays, and in a modified form at the start of the Rosary each time we pray it? After all, it has three sections – one for each Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. The Creed tells us that the Father and the Son are “consubstantial”, which means of the SAME substance. And it tells us about the Holy Spirit too… “And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.” How can we mere humans understand the mystery of a Being who proceeds from other Beings but whose perfection as a result of their perfection makes Him equally and simultaneously perfect with them?
A mystery is a mere complexity – it is a difficult thing that we struggle to understand – and because mysteries are complex, and difficult to understand, many inaccuracies spring up around them.
It is sort of like the human brain, which is a complex and confusing organ that few people really adequately understand. A survey conducted in the US in 2013 found that 65 percent of Americans believe that the human being makes use of only 10 percent of their brain. Although this 10 percent is a commonly cited statistic, it is actually a completely inaccurate one. In fact, human beings use far more than 10 percent of their brain, even when asleep.
So, this begs the question… Why do so many people think we use so little of our brains?
The answer is pretty simple... Someone said it once in the early 1900s, and then someone else repeated it, and then the media picked up on it and it was repeated over and over again until it became something that we believed without question. It was repeated over and over again until it became a sort of fact – though it contains nothing of the truth!
It sort of amazes me – the way that information became fact.
I have been thinking about that recently, and it occurred to me that this is the mistake so many of us are making… My society has told me over and over again that I should value what I have and seek out more. It has told me to put God last and that I do not have time for Him and He will bring me down and prevent me from experiencing pleasure, happiness and joy.
What started as a simple – though probably malicious – error, has been repeated so many times that it is now seen as an established fact.
And, when I suddenly realised this, it occurred to me that Saint Isaac the Syrian was right when he said, “Fear evil habits more than demons.”
For it is the habits that become the facts and the facts that become the truth. This is a problem, for only the Truth will set us free.
The facts are important for that! Now, we just need to make sure we do not get lost in the mystery and lose our way…
For, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6).
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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