OH THE WONDERS!
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
August 22, 2020
When I went college I wasn’t at all sure that I wanted to
learn theology – the study of God. But I had a hunch – maybe. And because I attended
a Catholic university, I was required to take at least three courses in
theology in order to graduate. Eventually I found out that if I took only two
more courses in theology I could earn a minor degree in it. That seemed like a
pretty fair deal to me, so I did that. I could then present myself to the world
as a kind of quasi-intelligent knower about God.
And then a few years later I discerned that I might want to
be a priest. And that would require another four full years of studying nothing
but theology. I did that too. I emerged as something of an expert about who and
how God is, or so I imagined. And then a few years after that I was asked to go
off to get a doctoral degree in theology so that I could teach graduate
students and priesthood candidates. At first I didn’t want to, but eventually I
did that too – five more years of reading and classes and research and writing
about God. That’s a total of nine years – AFTER college. So by now I must be
the resident wizard about the things of God, right?
Not at all. Because all along the way I was learning
something else: that the more information you digest about God in the course of
your studies, and the more you seem to know about the way God’s mind works, the
more baffling it becomes. You realize how little you can know. That’s not
because you or I are stupid; it’s because of who God is. God is mysterious, and
the person who truly knows God knows that.
What I learned during all those years of school and through
all the time since then is that the last person to be trusted about matters of
faith is the one who begins a sentence by saying, “I know what God thinks about
this or that specific thing or person or event.” Those are the words of a
person who doesn’t really understand God at all.
One of my classmates in graduate school had previously been
a chemistry teacher, and he told me that with the natural sciences the more you
study the more you know and can master. Theology is exactly the opposite. Nobody
ever gets to “master” how God is and what God thinks. Such a person would, by
that very claim, become God. That’s what we call idolatry.
And to our candidates for Confirmation today, I’d like to
ask you to remember a couple of things, because you’ve spent your time of
preparation here learning a lot about God – particularly about God’s Holy
Spirit.
One thing is that God is real and loving, but is also and
always beyond our full ability to figure out, as if to solve a riddle or a
science problem. To know God is not to put God under a microscope for
dissection or data gathering. To know God is to fall in to a loving
relationship first, and then to begin to ask what that relationship might mean.
So the minute you think you have God all figured out, be
assured that you are wrong. That doesn’t have to be a cause for despair or for
giving up on the quest; it’s just sometimes a little harder to figure out. Confirmation
is not the end of your journey; it’s the beginning of the adult phase of it – if
you are willing to engage that. You are already loved and claimed by God, so
you don’t need to manipulate yourself or your life circumstances in order to receive
that gift – you just need to open yourself to it, and that’s what happens today
for you. Thank you for being that life witness for all of the rest of us who
are on the same adult journey which you are embarking on today.
We just heard St. Paul tell us in today’s second reading:
“Oh the depth of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgements, and how
unsearchable are his ways! For who has known the mid of the Lord, or who has
been his counselor?”
Not me, and I hope not you! Nobody was closer to God than
St. Paul, which is why he was quick to point out what he knew that he didn’t
know about God. But for him that was not a curse or an obstacle – it was a
reason for hope beyond the limits of what he could figure out all by himself.
So where does that leave us? Are we not able to know
anything about God? Is all of this theology and faith formation just futile?
Not at all. Our God wants us to know and love him. That’s
why God created us in the first place, when he wouldn’t have had to do so. That’s
why he gave us commandments and scriptures to help us to lead good and happy
lives. It’s why he sent Jesus into the world to give us a clear example of what
God wishes for people: peace, justice, self-offering, hospitality – especially to
the poor and grieving and outcast – and ultimately eternal life. And especially
today, it’s why God continues to pour out Holy Spirit on us – all of us:
- To make us courageous when we are threatened.
- To make us trusting when we feel lost.
- To make us hopeful when we are overwhelmed.
- To give us direction when we seem confused.
- To embrace us in God's peace when we doubt.
What a great, unfathomable, inscrutable, mysterious, rock-solid gift!
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