The Sound of Silence

There is no single thing on earth about which we have total knowledge because all creation is permeated with the ultimate Mystery — which is God.

In a story by H.G. Wells called “The Soul of a Bishop,” there is a conversation between a bishop and an angel. The angel tells the bishop that religion is man’s way of trying to define truths which he doesn’t fully understand. But “you can tell me the Truth,” the Bishop exclaims. Whereupon the angel tenderly pats the bishop’s head, saying, “truth! Yes, I could tell you. But could this hold it? Not this little box of brains.” You haven’t things to hold it with inside this.”

What the angel meant, of course, is that mystery is a blessing. In God’s mercy, we walk in the shadow of mystery until the blessed “end time,” the Divinely-appointed time for us to understand the blazing light of full Truth. As expressed in an ancient maxim, “If you cannot face the…