Easter - a time of mystery

Easter. A time of mystery. A time when light shines, and we see things differently. It comes from the darkness of the Passion, from suffering, and from not knowing. It is true, that I appreciate light more when I have experienced darkness. That I appreciate resurrection better when I have known suffering.

John Shea speaks to this in his book Story of God, where he quotes Kazantzakis's description of mystery. It is, he says, the luminous interval between two darknesses. He then notes that when the reliability of all we have constructed is brought into question, we enter the dimension of Mystery (25).

In our desire to know, to be in the light, we forget that unknowing can contain something positive and fulfilling. This is the difference between faith, and having a vague spirituality with no particular beliefs.

This is not an attempt to put a good spin on pain and injustice, emotional distress and suffering. Rather, it is how we make sense of it. For as much as we don't like to admit it, we do not find the depth of our soul until our world falls apart. That experience helps us realize that what has up till now proven good enough is no longer sufficient, and we seek something better.

Shea speaks at some length about the need for our ready answers and expectations to fail. He says Disenchantment is a traditional and well-established path to the awareness of Mystery...the beginning of mature religious consciousness (28-29). Shea's statement is obvious: I suspect every one of us can look back over the times in our lives when we entered into a new spiritual consciousness, and can track it to some form of disenchantment we experienced.

Mystery. It is not something to be feared, but something that invites us to enter more deeply. And only after we enter, do we discover.

And isn't that what Easter is all about?

Entering into mystery

Lately I have been reading a lot about mystery and how we mortal beings really like to know. We don't like being kept in the "dark" as it were.

John Shea has an interesting view on such things. In his book Story of God  he quotes Kazantzakis's description of mystery, which calls it the luminous interval between two darknesses. He then notes that when the reliability of all we have constructed is brought into question, we enter the dimension of Mystery (25).

In our desire to know, to be in the light, we forget that unknowing can contain something positive and fulfilling. This is the difference between faith, and having a vague spirituality with no particular beliefs.

But some say, are you just trying to put a good spin on pain and injustice? Are you making light of sickness or poverty or emotional distress? I don't think so. Science bears out the fact that having the ability to find something good in a bad situation actually speeds healing. But what Shea is speaking about is more. It is about discovery, and sometimes we don't really search until our world falls apart. Then we find that what has up till now proven good enough is no longer sufficient, and we seek something better.

Shea speaks at some length about the need for our ready answers and expectations to fail. He says Disenchantment is a traditional and well-established path to the awareness of Mystery...the beginning of mature religious consciousness (28-29). Shea's statement is obvious: I suspect every one of us can look back over the times in our lives when we entered into a new spiritual consciousness, and can track it to some form of  disenchantment we experienced.

Mystery. It is not something to be feared, but something that invites us to enter more deeply. And only after we enter, do we discover.

Embracing Disenchantment

I'm reading John Shea's Story of God  and find his concept of mystery fascinating. He uses Kazantzakis's description of mystery, the luminous interval between two darknesses and takes it one step further, when the reliability of all we have constructed is brought into question, we enter the dimension of Mystery (25).

It's amazing to think that in a world of knowledge, unknowing can contain something positive and fulfilling. Are we just trying to put a good spin on pain and injustice? Are we making light of sickness or poverty or emotional distress? I don't think so. Science bears out the fact that having the ability to find something good in a bad situation actually speeds healing. But this is more. This is discovery, and sometimes we don't really search until our world falls apart with what has proven good enough, and we need to find something better.

Shea speaks at some length about the need for our ready answers and expectations to fail. He says Disenchantment is a traditional and well-established path to the awareness of Mystery...the beginning of mature religious consciousness (28-29).Shea's statement is obvious: I suspect every one of us can look back over the times in our lives when we entered into a new spiritual consciousness, and can track it to some form of  disenchantment we experienced.

Mystery. It is not something to be feared, but  something to embrace. For it has the power to lead us to new depths.