The Riddles of God

The following is a quote from G.K.C. which continues on the theme of yesterday’s post* regarding the mysteries of life:

“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”

G.K. Chesterton, from the Introduction to The Book of Job, 1916

Again, G.K.C. reminds us that historically man accepted the presence of the riddles of God in his life, and the riddles resided quite comfortably with rational thought and understanding. By keeping “one foot in fairyland” man could and can accept the many incomprehensible sufferings that life entails: the death of a loved one, the loss of a fortune, mental and physical illnesses. By accepting the riddles of God, man might also assent to the mysteries of the Catholic Faith: a God who sent His Son to die to save man from eternal punishment and banishment; the presence of His Son in an ongoing manner in a wafer of bread in every tabernacle in every Catholic Church throughout the world; the birth of unrepeatable children from the sacred union of marriage, and the raising up of new generations in the crazy and often chaotic unit called the family, which has rights and obligations placed on it by God in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony; the mystery of Holy Orders, a man giving up hearth and home to be wedded to the Holy Catholic Church, etc.

We saw at the Met Gala this week a fashion show which displayed in attire what many deem to be “relics” of the Catholic Faith, but the donned pieces are not relics. They are part and parcel of our Faith, and give a physical reality to the mysterious belief which resides in our hearts: that God sent His son to save us, and while His Son lived on Earth, He established the Catholic Faith, so that after His Ascension into Heaven, He might remain with us in a mysterious manner: in his priests, in the Blessed Sacrament, in the sacraments of His Church, in the Holy Spirit which He gifted to us, and in ways too numerous to recount, but He is here, now.

It is very mysterious how He continues to live among us. I found this article from the N.Y. Times interesting: Make Catholicism Weird Again. In the article the Catholic writer, Ross Douthat, notes that the physical accouterments of our religion, which were hijacked and re-appropriated by the participants of the Met Gala, have an important place in Catholicism, and should be brought back and universally used, for they, I am putting this in my own words, convey the mysterious, which man essentially feels an affinity for, and links to God. God and the mysterious go together. Man instinctively understands that God is not to be fully apprehended or, as one might say, put into a box, by mere mortals.

“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”

Indeed.

 

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*Yesterday’s post: One Foot in Fairyland