"Nights and days, bless the Lord,
Light and darkness, bless the Lord....
Fire and heat, bless the Lord,
Cold and chill, bless the Lord,
Ice and snow, bless the Lord." (from the Canticle from the Book of Daniel 3)
God seems to revel in opposites. His Almighty Power and Beauty is present in all things, even those whose qualities contradict each other. We can sense His presence in both the aggressive, predator lion, and the meek little lamb, in dinosaurs that existed as both those who were meat eaters and those who were vegans, in bird plumage in a kaleidoscope of intense colors, in skin tones and cultures that differ across the globe. God, Creator and Designer of the Universe, thrives on creative diversity. And everywhere that God can be, we humans can find God there.
Up to a point.
We can rejoice in our creative Creator God's marvelous, myriad works.
We can rejoice and listen to God Incarnate, God in the Flesh, Jesus, Who teaches us that God is merciful Love.
But we can never say that we KNOW God. God is Infinite, Too Beyond Us for fragile human minds to comprehend.
If we would ever say that we know and understand the hidden Mind and Heart of God, we would be fools.
But - can we ever say that we totally know any human being? Even those we love with all our hearts? Never. We can be awestruck by a loved one's beauty and charm, but even after years of knowing them, they can surprise us. How unfathomable even the human soul is!
We can reach out to God, we can cry "I love you! I hunger and thirst for You!" We can be so in love with God that we are frustrated by God's hiddenness. We can say "I love you for Yourself, not for the things You give me!"
But God still remains elusive, hidden.
But - you know that already.
How many times, wounded by tragedies that the God whom you love allows, have you shouted "Why? I want to understand this!" to God - and encountered silence?
How many times has your mind boggled at the idea of a Jesus Who is both God and Human? We don't understand how that works. If he was divine, how could he grow in wisdom, age, and grace? If he was human, how could he say "Before Abraham came to be, I AM"? Our fragile human minds can't comprehend the intricate complexity and beautiful simplicity of Jesus Our Savior, Who laid aside the power of his divinity to become a squalling, nursing human baby. In Jesus, once again, we have the collision of opposites - In Jesus, Humanity and Divinity both praise the Lord.
"Light and darkness, bless the Lord..."
Jesus is both the Light of the World - and Holy Darkness. Wholly approachable and still wholly unknowable.
Our journey to God necessarily is often through the darkness of unknowing.
St. John of the Cross said "If a man wishes to be sure of the road he walks on, he must walk in the dark." Doesn't that sound contradictory? That in order to see, we must be blind?
Think of the Magi, who set out on a long journey, traveling much of the time in darkness, following rough and confusing roads, their way lit only by a star. They didn't know where they were going. They didn't know who they would meet at the end of the journey. Somehow Love impelled them, Love for someone they hadn't met yet, Love who had sent only a small star to guide them. But the star was enough.
My husband Paul loves to paraphrase the words of Bishop Fulton Sheen about the Shepherds and the Magi:
"A cry went out over the white-chalked hills of Bethlehem one night. The cry was heard by two types of people: Shepherds, those who knew they knew nothing, and Magi, those who knew that they did not know everything."
We are like the Magi. We know that we don't know everything. No matter how many Bible Studies we may attend, no matter how many heavy theological books we may read, God still dances far away, beckoning us onward like a distant twinkling star in the Heavens. Yet, like the Magi, we each have our own individual star to follow - the steady Star of Love. And that Star of Love lives in our hearts, burning with the power of a fire place, flames dancing, yearning, leaping up to God, our Beloved, seeking to pierce the holy darkness.
"The goal of your life is now
to lift up your heart to God
in a simple, undiluted act of love,
for him in himself,
and not for anything he may give you.
Think only of him.
Do not let your mind and heart be distracted....
Be warned however
that when you reach out to God in this simplicity
you will find only darkness,
the cloud of unknowing.
This cloud, no matter what you do,
is and will always be between you and your God.
You cannot see God clearly
through the light of your reason.
You must be content to rest in this darkness,
ceaselessly crying out
for him whom you love....
God, who is our maker,
forever escapes our power to know.
But he is forever accessible to our power to love.
The power of love
in each of us individually
is great enough to reach
him who is without limits,
who forever escapes the power of our mind.
To experience
with the help of his grace,
the everlasting, miraculous wonder of his love
is to know endless happiness.
To never know it would be endless pain.
Exercise, then, your power to love him.
And you will discover
a love so powerful
that it brings with it
all that God is."
( from "The Cloud of Unknowing, 30 Days With A Great Spiritual Teacher")
Reach out with love and trust into the darkness, heart on fire like a steadily burning fireplace - reach out through the blinding snow of the world's indifference and pain - reach out for the embrace of God your Beloved. He will find you in the darkness. You will hear his steady breathing, the Breath of his Holy Spirit. You will know his Sacred heart rests against yours. Rest in the darkness. Your flame of love will always reach him. He will always come, again and again, until we finally join him in Paradise, where, as St. Paul tells us, we will know him as he knows us.