Pastoral Reflection
MYSTERY
There is a well-known story of a teacher who was talking with his students about mystery. "Think of a rose," he said. Everyone in the room could imagine a rose. "Can you think of the fragrance of a rose?" All heads nodded. "Can you describe that fragrance to me?" No one could. That's what mystery is. Something that we know to be true, but is beyond our powers to describe fully. In centuries past, most people lived with mystery more easily, but our modern minds want "just the facts," and we feel uneasy about anything we cannot easily understand. Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity--one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the two thousand-year history of the Church many saints, teachers, and theologians have described the Trinity in long and eloquent prose, but no one can ever arrive at a final definition because the nature of the Trinity is too great to be pinned down in human words. The scriptures show us hints in the actions of the one God as Father, Son, and Spirit, and contain many references to the relationship among the three as one. And we learn from Jesus' words to his disciples, recorded in the Gospels, that there is one savior and one salvation, given to us in Jesus Christ himself, which is open to us through the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul calls us the Body of Christ and says that we, as believers, are in relationship with God--equally called, equally chosen, equally loved. Yet within that equality, God has given each of us different gifts, different abilities, and different callings in life. The only thing that God asks is our love in return, and that we use what God has given us. It's that simple.
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