A basic assumption of science is that the world is intelligible and that humans have the capacity to study and understand it. Because of this assumption. men over the centuries have discovered or formulated the laws of nature, like the Pythagorean Theorem or Newton’s Laws of Motion or Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. And our lives are richer and fuller because of these discoveries. But often, scientists and philosophers get stumped by things so random they make no sense or questions for which no answers seem possible. This is the edge of human understanding and men come into the presence of enigma, of mystery, of the ineffable, of the infinite.
This mystical and sacred Presence may be beyond my understanding and yet I encounter it everyday. I know that two and two make four. But there are moments when I have zero and yet my life does not seem empty. I know that what goes up must come down and yet it is in moments of deepest sadness that I come to appreciate the heights of pure and unalloyed joy. I know that in my most elemental components, I am made of the same particles as the desk I am writing on and yet I have a consciousness and awareness of things going on around me and my desk hasn’t.
Yes, the world is intelligible but there are simply things that are beyond my comprehension. These things I may not fully understand. I sense and know them just by being present here and now. Like, I get a sense of the Presence of the Infinite Goodness who has made all of these things come to be.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.
Matthew 5:17-19