The Mystery of a Personal God

(Found here)

“The mystery of a personal God is the source of prayer. But because his divine mystery is beyond our conception, we are likely to experience a certain strain in our reflections on his nature and truth. God seems at times to parry off our attempts to understand him, resisting our effort to take hold of him in a moment’s fragile thought. Behind this may be God’s refusal to be reduced to an item of mere thought and observation. He desires to be personally sought in love. Without love animating our seeking, no effort of thought alone gets nearer to him. What may be surprising, however, is that our passion for God can increase as we encounter his greater mystery. This spiritual passion may flame up after pondering a truth of God has, for a time, frustrated our mind. After the struggle of thought, we must accept a silencing of thought before the concealed face of God. It is a sign, perhaps, that our passion for God is intensifying in prayer.

It is not long before we realize that great satisfactions do not await our intellect as we pursue the knowledge of God. The contrary is the evident rule. Every truth about God, embraced after labored reflection or in a swift insight, is soon perceived to extend beyond what we have grasped in thought. A backlash of incomprehension follows every deeper insight we receive about God in prayer. The incomprehension is often the greater grace, more than the knowledge we may have gained of God. It protects us from resting in an intellectual comfort as the fruit of prayer, and thereby halting our search for God. Other times an intuition is given. The search to know God, the perpetual incompletion of this quest, teaches a deeper truth about the God of love who has become a man. We discover for ourselves how quickly an infinite light overwhelms every lesser light. Every glimpse of his truth draws us into a more piercing awareness of how little we still know. We realize he is known even in his human Incarnation as the beloved one who stretches always beyond our understanding.

Some minds cannot countenance an ignorance before the mystery of God as a healthy condition of soul. What cannot be embraced as true about God except in a humble act of submission grates on them. The perplexity that accompanies a mystery of faith seems an obstacle to faith. Some souls would quickly remove it if they could. They do not realize that a blind, unseeing quality is a necessity for more intense faith. It must permeate the certitudes of our faith in God.

A rational tendency in faith can provide a persuasive clarity that pleases the mind, but sometimes at a greater loss. Too much rationality, too much assurance of taking hold of divine truths, may deflect our awareness from the deeper personal mystery of Our Lord still unknown, still calling in a quiet manner for our desire and humble seeking—and for prayer. . .”

~Donald Haggerty