I have just begun reading Frank Sheed’s Theology and Sanity
…there is something marvelously inviting to the mind in an infinite being of whom we can know something, but whom we cannot wholly know; in the knowledge of whom we can grow, yet the truth of whose being we can never exhaust; we shall never have to throw God away like a solved crossword puzzle. And all this is contained in the concept of Mystery.
I don’t play computer games because I am obsessive-compulsive — the tagline for my website is madly enthusiastic with good cause. If I start on a new computer game, I tend to literally sit at the computer until I have the game concept and strategy nailed to the floor. Then I’ll take a break — eat! sleep! acknowledge family members! — and return to test my understanding.
Once I verify that I understand how the game works, I lose interest. I have bumped into the walls of the holodeck, the illusion is burst, the magic crumbles.
Sheed’s metaphor of a solved crossword puzzle hit home because I used to compulsively solve crossword puzzles, and loved the sort with a trick or a theme. I wouldn’t put those puzzles down until the last box was filled in.
If somebody left a partially-completed crossword puzzle around, I’d finish it.
Yes, even the Sunday crossword puzzle in the New York Times.
But lately I have taken to tossing aside crossword puzzles once I have figured out the trick or theme because finishing is just filling letters in boxes. No joy in discovery, no thrill of exploration.
So I laughed, because it is wonderful to have a Mystery to explore.
Technorati tags: Catholicism, Mystery, Theology.
