Grasped by the mystery of who God is

Lectio Divina is a way to God, which when persevered in, becomes a determined pilgrimage from where we are to wherever God’s invitation takes us. Spiritual reading, which I think is very different from other reading (whether academic or devotional) has given me my richest moments of encounter with God. My own spirituality is inextricably linked to words as sacrament; words undoubtedly convey spiritual truth freighted with meaning  that touches me in the depths of who I am.  The Jewish reverence for Torah, is demonstrated by the importance of writing the scroll by hand, each word then has to be thought about, meticulously constructed, meditated upon as it is written with a calligrapher’s care for beauty, precision and accuracy.  A spiritual reading journal which I write now and then, also acts as an important vehicle for careful, considered respect for  words. In such a journal what is most important is not quantity and regularity of entry – but thoughtfulness, attentiveness, so that what is written is only that which communicates the sense of truth and presence, that intimates the reality of God.

Reading Elizabeth Johnson’s reflections on the importance of being able to ask questions, as a defining characteristic of being human, opened up for me yet again, the essential mystery of the God whose incomprehensibility both evokes ultimate questions and eludes final answers.  She mentions that the first words of Karl Rahner’s doctoral thesis are, "One asks". One important way we as human beings relate to God is, “A person asks a question”. After that, the limitless horizon of knowledge, including sacred knowledge, opens up. The true theologian prays, so that when we pray a true prayer we are being theologians. One way or another, God is the epistemological presupposition of our lives – the starting place and ending point of wisdom. "One asks" – and question becomes prayer.

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“The concept of God is not a grasp of God by which a person masters the mystery; but it is the means by which one lets oneself be grasped by the mystery which is present yet ever distant.”

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Words like these act as brakes on that intellectual hubris that deludes us into thinking that God is there to be known. Humility encouraging  receptiveness, patient longing as the passive activity of desire, curiosity as an outward looking trustfulness seeking answers to inner questioning – but these grasped by the mystery which draws us out of ourselves, towards the mystery of who God is.