Part II

The Mysterious Presence and Operation of the Holy Trinity in Our Lives

Note: The first thirty-five meditations for our prayer group meetings have come to an end. We have prayed about the truths of the Catholic faith as outlined in the Creed. This is only a beginning. Following up on the readings we have suggested, especially The Catechism of the Catholic Church, accompanied by the daily Bible reading, particularly the Gospels, we now move to the second phase of our prayer journey: the consideration of the sacraments and liturgy, that is, Christ’s work in union with the Holy Spirit to bring the blessings of the heavenly Father into our lives and world. Our meditation will be based on Part Two of the Catechism §1066–1690 (pp 277–420). It might be a good idea to glance at the titles of these pages and skim through them in order to have some sense of where we are going.

Meditation Thirty-six, Second Week of November 2003

The Experience of the Mystery of Christ

Begin with prayer to the Holy Spirit

Readings: Eph. 1:3–10; 3:1–9; Rom. 16:25–27; Col. 1:24–27; Mark 4:11;
Luke 8:10; Catechism §1061–1068

The idea of mystery is essential to any real appreciation of the Christian faith. Our Lord speaks of the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Luke 8:10) and St. Paul writes of the mysteries of Christ (Rom. 16:25–27). The apostle also tells us in dramatic language of the depth of the riches and knowledge of God and “how unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways” (Rom. 11:33). Apart from the direct effects of original sin—pride, irreverence, and self-love (often called narcissism)—it seems that the greatest spiritual and religious calamities of modern times are traceable to the rejection of the experience of mystery. Our ancestors lived in times when the operation of the physical world seemed very mysterious. Science has since pushed back the borders of mystery so that many things, once mysterious and unknown, are now understood. However, any real comprehension of science now reveals that even greater mysteries surround us. The origin of the universe (the big bang theory), the nature of matter, gravity, light, and life itself are all wrapped in great mystery. Superficial scientific presentations in the media simply ignore these great mysteries. In complete contrast to this superficiality, Albert Einstein, called the greatest scientist who ever lived, wrote: “The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science. . . . A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude.”

The liturgy, the sacraments, and grace itself are all profoundly mysterious, but they are supernatural rather than natural mysteries. To give a superficial explanation of gravity, matter, or physical life is as stupid as explaining away Christ or His gifts of grace conferred by Baptism, the Holy Eucharist, and other sacraments, and by His own mysterious words in the Gospel. Much that is written now about Christ, the sacraments, and the Church, even about Scripture, lacks an adequate sense of mystery, as Einstein defines it, and ends up being superficial, false, or heretical. Several priests, some of them still alive, have reported that Einstein was fascinated by the Catholic dogma of the Holy Eucharist, a substance with no appearances of its real nature.

We would all do better if we had a greater sense of mystery. Just as the mystery of the origin of the universe is the greatest of scientific mysteries, so the Paschal Mystery, including the events of Our Savior’s life from the Incarnation to the Ascension on high and His announced Second Coming, is the great mystery of our faith. The Paschal Mystery focuses on Christ’s sacrificial death and Resurrection and is of the greatest possible importance for us because it tells us how we are to be saved and enter everlasting life. We will go on from here to look at the liturgy, a word that describes all the mysterious actions centering on Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, which unite us with Christ, our only salvation.

Quotation for Meditation

From The Catechism of the Catholic Church §1067–1068

“The wonderful works of God among the people of the Old Testament were but a prelude to the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to God. He accomplished this work principally by the Paschal mystery of His blessed Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and glorious Ascension, whereby ‘dying He destroyed our death, rising He restored our life.’ For it was from the side of Christ as He slept the sleep of death upon the Cross that there came forth ‘the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church’ ” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 5 §2). For this reason the Church celebrates in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation.
It is this mystery of Christ that the Church proclaims and celebrates in her liturgy so that the faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world:

For it is in the liturgy, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, that “the work of our redemption is accomplished,” and it is through the liturgy especially that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 2).

Quiet Time and Then Discussion

Questions for Meditation

1. Do I think sometimes of the mysteries that surround us in the physical world, like gravity, matter, and light?
2. Do I think reverently of the mysteries of God: creation, the body and the soul?
3. Do I think of the mystery of Christ, His divine Person, His human nature, His grace and glory, the gift of salvation?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, Your Being and nature are completely beyond my mind or any other human mind. I can only fall in adoration of Your Being and Your decision to know each of Your children and call us to Your eternal home.

Lord Jesus Christ, how can I ever embrace all that Your mysterious Being means to us. You are the Son of the Eternal Father, and yet mysteriously You are brother to us poor mortals. And You work for our salvation through the sacraments and liturgy as well as Your Holy Gospel.

Open our hearts and minds to Your mystery, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of divine mercy. Come into our hearts and be our inner teacher so that we may fall in adoration of the divine mysteries, that we may penetrate them as far as we can, and accept with joy and gratitude what our minds cannot grasp. Amen.