Christmas Weekday
The late Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, confounded many with his philosophical distinction between different kinds of national intelligence issues. There were, he said, known knowns – those things we understand exist – and there are also unknown unknowns – things we are neither aware of nor understand. There are also unknown knowns. This last category concerns things we are aware of yet do not fully understand.
Today, St. John describes an unknown known. He states that we are already God’s children by baptism into Christ’s death and Resurrection. Yet, in the transformation that will take place after death is agnostic. “What we shall be has not yet been revealed.”
The fact that God has not yet revealed this may surprise us. Apparently, the mechanics of our glorification and the description of it are not important for our salvation. And I think they are in fact unimportant. Because John says also: “[W]hen it is revealed we shall be like him, for shall see him as he is.” This tells us that we are undergoing now a theosis – a transformation into the divine likeness already. Perhaps we cannot begin to describe in words what the glory of heaven will be like. This fills us with anticipation and wonder. St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote: “Ideas create idols; only wonder leads to knowing.”
Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB
Posted in Articles for Christmas, Daily Reflections