Page 149 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II

83

The mysterious nature of God is a very fitting title for this chapter.
Interestingly, within this mystery, we are invited to focus on the Word of God
and the importance of hearing, listening to, and finally responding to the
Word by obeying it.

For St. John, the Word of God is the Logos, the Son of God, Jesus of
Nazareth, who was with God in the beginning, who is God, and who is the
Word made flesh through his conception by the power of the Holy Spirit in
the womb of Mary, and his birth among us through the incarnation.

Such a great and wonderful mystery that the Creator of this whole universe
would deign to be so humble as to come into our world in such an
insignificant way draws us into the world of paradox and parable. How else
would mundane words seek to plumb the depths of this mystery? So, Jesus
told stories or parables to jar listeners out of their well-worn opinions and
attitudes and made the Beatitudes, which reverse the values of the world,
the core of his teaching.

Just as too brilliant a light can cause the darkness of not being able to see,
and electricity needs a transformer to render electrical power safe and
useable, grappling with these profound mysteries of the nature of God elicits
the use of mystical language. Consider the language of the mystic St. John
of the Cross, who speaks of the Dark Night of the Senses, and the Dark
Night of the Soul.

And so, this chapter dives into this paradoxical language to prod us into
understanding at a deeper level: bright is dark; progress seems like retreat;
straight seems crooked; purity seems tainted; promise seems hopeless;
virtue appears weak; truth appears false; form seems shapeless; talent
seems useless, and the voice of God appears silent. Actually, the mystics
would claim that God’s first language, where we can best hear God, is
silence.

We are, in the end, invited into a leap of faith. This entails trusting that this
God who is silent, invisible, and far beyond our limited minds to
comprehend, alone can bring peace, joy, meaning, purpose, and fulfillment
in the face of all the seeming accidents, suffering, and vagaries of human
life. As the text concludes, “God alone nourishes and brings everything to
completion.”

b
c
a Mark 4:18-20; 2 Peter 1:10-11; Job 12:4; Isaiah 30:12; John 3:19;
d
e
1 John 2:8-9; Matthew 20:17-19; John 21:18-19; Matthew 16:21;
f
j
g Luke 6:2-9; 2 Peter 3:9; John 19:9-10; 2 Peter 3: 15-16; John 18:36-37;
h
i
k Luke 8:10; John 19:28-30; Matthew 27:46; Matthew 13:15-17;
m
n Colossians 1:15-16; Revelation 21:6.