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Mystery: We know not how
This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.
I remember being at a religious conference once and hearing the speaker mock the idea that when it came to something we could not fully explain, it was a cop out to suggest that was because it was a mystery. One example of this cop out was the way in which the Church could not explain the Trinity.
In the west, we tend to view mysteries in the same way, as things to be solved. Who wants to read a mystery and get to the end of the book only to discover that nothing was made clear? In the east, however, the sense of mystery is something that is to be entered into.
The sense of mystery that comes with God is an example of the type of mystery we simply seek to enter into in our lives. It is not at all possible to explain God, as if with more effort a finite being could fully understand an infinite one. In this life, we cannot fully understand God. We can only seek to enter more and more into the mystery that is God.
How is it that you would do that today? In what ways will you enter into the mystery of God? For while there certainly are moments where God comes crashing into our lives, usually it is the case with the mystery of God that we have to demonstrate our openness to receiving God.
Both images in today’s gospel are farming images or growing images. The farmer does not know how the crop grows, really, only that it does grow. The mustard seed starts ever so small only to become a large tree. In so many ways, this is what our faith is like. Find some way today to enter into the mystery of your faith, which grows in a way you do not understand, and becomes bigger and deeper than you could ever imagine.
On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.
