The Realm of "I Don't Know"

We experience mystery when we enter the realm of "I don't know."  I don't mean the realm of confusion but of "I can't know" or "it's beyond me."

In today's gospel Jesus saw James and Andrew "in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.  He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed them."  Mt. 4:21-22.

The commentary (Living With Christ) points out that in John's gospel "Andrew met Jesus first and introduced his brother Simon to Jesus.  But in the gospel today, there is no indication that Simon and Andrew had ever met Jesus.  Matthew brings out the mystery of the relationship with Jesus.  As Matthew presents it, Jesus walked by one day and suddenly the brothers dropped everything and left their entire life behind to follow Jesus."

The realm of "I don't know" can be explored any time we accept an invitation.  As the commentary states, "Everyone's life with the Lord is mysterious.  One yes leads to another and to another.  Doors open and we find ourselves in places we never expected.  It's a mysterious love."

My marriage vow is a venture into mystery.  We accept our partner "for better or worse," not knowing the future.  The vow would be unncessary if we knew.

The basic realities of life are also beyond our ken.  Dante in Purgatorio XVIII (55-60) observes that "no one knows" from whence we derive our desire for the highest goods (primi appetibili), "those things or actions which in themselves and prior to all particular, concrete objects are good in themselves." Dante Soundings, article by Christopher Ryan at p. 106.  They, like the "zeal of bees for making honey" lie innate and hidden in man's heart.  (Man's moral stature is achieved only by his gathering of the particular objects of love that come his way into this mysterious primal good. Ibid.)

The experience of mystery is also an experience of awe, of wonder.  Christ's invitation to "follow me" is an invitation into the mystery of his love.  If we follow Christ, get near to him, we "will be struck by a sense of wonder at the mystery of God and of man himself.  Christ enlightens men's minds and hearts;  his light is transformative provided we seek to live the truth he makes known to us.  Our lives transfigured by the light of Christ will bear witness to the love of God, and the eloquent language of a transfigured life will be capable of amazing the world." John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, sec.20, par. 2.  

To live in the mystery of Christ is His special invitation to each of us.  All it requires is that we drop our nets (surrender our lives) and venture into the realm of "I don't know."