What is the leap of faith we make to believe in… God? Such a leap moves us into the realm of mystery. The mystery of God is not revealed in beliefs about being judged or punished – or being magically ‘saved’ from them. Judgments and punishments are not so much beliefs as they are observations of people in the known world; i.e. judges, parents, teachers, ourselves. Believing God is a heavenly version of an earthly person is not a leap of faith. It is a projection of the known into the unknown.
Mystery is the reverse. We experience mystery when the unknown permeates that which we know, or think we know. For all of the science informing us about life in the womb and in the stars, every baby born is no less miraculous, all the galaxies no less wondrous. Their mystery continues to unfold. So too the mystery that is… God. What is the name we give to Mystery? When Peter in the Gospel leaps off the boat to walk across the water toward Jesus it is because something, someone invites him beyond his understanding, “Come Peter, walk.” Peter does so and enters into the realm of mystery. It is not a province or a presence that rejects the physical world so much as it extends the physical world. It is a realm beyond cause and effect and it is miraculous and wondrous. We experience the unimaginable. We are lighter than air. And then, Peter doubts. And then, Peter sinks. Perhaps Peter doubts Jesus. Perhaps he doubts himself. What is it about a power that propels us to leap from the boat but does not sustain us in our walk across the water? Perhaps what is really sinking in that water is a belief that anything can be stronger than storms and our fear of them. Do we, sometimes, have more faith in the storms surrounding us than in a wonderous Power who is with us; present within the chaos and also within the quiet, because the Power is within us? What is the faith Jesus nurtured in prayer and lived? What is that same faith he encouraged for others if not a faith in a Power that is so very much with us as to be us?
A story is told of ancient times when humans neglected and abused Divinity. The gods became angry and decided to hide Divinity. The first suggestion was to carry Divinity to the top of the highest mountain and hide it there.” “No, humans will eventually climb every mountain in search of it and find it.” “Then let’s sink it in the deepest ocean.” “No, for they will learn to dive into the ocean and will find it there.” “We could take Divinity into the heavens and hide it far away.” “No.” said the other gods, “In time humanity will travel to the stars and find it.” They were close to giving up as it seemed there was no place that human beings would not search for Divinity. After a long pause one god said: “Here is what we will do. We will hide Divinity deep in the center of their own being, for humans will never think to search for it there.”
Prayer: Dear…, we give ourselves to the mystery of being.
Question: What will it take for me to believe in the power of leaping into the unknown and the power of walking in mystery?
August 10, 2014 Gospel Matthew 14:22-33 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time