I love a good who-done-it mystery. Proof is found in my standing date to watch NCIS with my Sisters every Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. And I never pass up an episode of Murder She Wrote. There is something comforting in an hour-long mystery. During the sixty minutes you get a good dose of intrigue and excitement and, for the most part, the satisfaction of a tidy conclusion.
I also love a good God’s-Saving-Grace Mystery. Proof is found in my standing date before the Blessed Sacrament each morning. And I never pass up a chance to read Scripture and ponder the writings of the Church Fathers. There is something comforting in God’s Mysteries. Yet, unlike a Murder She Wrote mystery, there is something deeply challenging and a bit unsettling in spending time immersed in God’s Mysteries.
In a good who-done-it there is a lack of information. It is a negative mystery that needs to be solved. That is different from the Mysteries of God. They are mysterious because of an overabundance of information. They blow our minds! Think about glories of creation and the beginning of time. Set your mind to the Trinity or the Incarnation or Consubstantiation and you will soon see that the Mysteries of God are positive mysteries that have no need for answers. They are not problems to be solved.
Contemplating the Mysteries of God lead you to the realization that the more we think we know the more we know for sure that there is more to know. Now that’s a mystery!
Sister Lisa MaurerSister Lisa Maurer was born and raised in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Before entering the Monastery, she taught and coached in Catholic Schools within the New Ulm Diocese. Sister Lisa made her first Monastic Profession in August 2009 and on July 11, 2012, she made her Perpetual Profession. Her first ministry was working at the parishes of St. Lawrence and St. Joseph in Duluth. Currently she is the Mission Integration Manager of the Benedictine Health System. See all of Sister Lisa’s posts. |