MYSTERY. — In current Catholic teaching, a truth revealed by God is called a mystery, one that the human intellect cannot discover by its own powers alone and that, even when known through revelation, can never be perfectly understood.
SUMMARY:
I. The term
II. The concept
III. Existence and knowability.I. THE TERM
The word μυστήριον (whence the Latin mysterium and the Italian m.) had a twofold meaning in Hellenistic Greek, profane and religious: in the first sense it denoted a hidden truth or reality, a secret; in the second, especially in the plural, it was used to indicate “the mysteries” (v.), those rites of religious initiation concerning which the initiates had to maintain the strictest secrecy. In the Old Testament the term occurs with both meanings: in the religious sense it designates “the secrets of God,” that is, the designs of his providence unknown to us (Sap. 2, 22), or a hidden divine reality such as “Wisdom” (Sap. 6, 22). In the New Testament the term occurs 28 times, 21 of them in s. Paolo. There it sometimes assumes the sense of a reality possessing symbolic religious significance (Eph. 5, 32), or of a reality operating in a mysterious manner (II Thess. 2, 7). More often, however, it indicates a truth known to God alone and graciously revealed by him to men (e.g., Mc. 4, 11 and parallels). In s. Paolo it especially signifies the divine plan of salvation, hidden from eternity in God and now manifested by the Apostle (e.g., Rom. 16, 25-26; Eph. 3, 3-6, 9).This overall meaning passed from the New Testament into Christian usage, where, however, it also assumed another meaning, derived from the religious sense of Hellenism: Christians also call “m.” the sacred rites through which one participates in the divine life brought by Christ, and in particular the Eucharistic rite. In the Latin of the Church, the twofold meaning, of divine truth and sacred rite, was expressed by two terms, mysterium and sacramentum, which at first were used interchangeably. Only over time did their meanings become differentiated: mysterium (and the Italian m.) came to be reserved for expressing the hidden truths of Christianity, while sacramentum (sacramento) was reserved for designating rites or sacred realities.
II. THE CONCEPT
The current Catholic concept of mystery is a clarification and deepening of the biblical meaning. Its elaboration took place during the patristic and scholastic periods, although it was only at the First Vatican Council that it was solemnly defined by the Church. Some biblical statements clearly contain the concept of a truth hidden in God, naturally unknowable to anyone who is not God, and communicated to human beings by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt. 11, 25-27; Io. 1, 18; I Cor. 2, 7-16). Beginning from these statements, Christian thought soon distinguished two orders of truth: those that human beings can know through their intelligence, and those inaccessible to the human intellect—or indeed to every intellect that is not God’s. The fundamental truths of the Christian religion were placed among the latter: the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son of God, heavenly beatitude, and the Eucharist. Later, on several occasions, various attempts arose either to demonstrate these fundamental truths rationally or to interpret them in such a way as to make them perfectly «evident» to the human intellect; typical is Abelard’s attempt concerning the Trinity. The attempt was repeated, in a more serious form, in the last century, both by non-Christian philosophers, such as Hegel, and Hermes (v.), Günther (v.), FROHSCHAMMER, JACOB (v.).Against these errors, the precise dogmatic formulation of the concept of mystery was elaborated at the First Vatican Council. In the constitution De fide catholica, in chapter IV, the Council teaches that «according to the constant mind of the Church there exist two orders of knowledge, distinct both in their principle and in their object: the principle of knowledge in the first order is reason, in the second divine faith; the object of knowledge in the first order is solely natural truths, while in the second it is, in addition to certain truths which the natural intellect can attain, also the mysteries hidden in God, which cannot be known unless they are revealed by him» (Denz-U, 1795). The corresponding canon declares anyone a heretic who says that «divine revelation contains no true and proper mystery, but that all the dogmas of faith can be (perfectly) understood and demonstrated by a properly developed intellect» (Denz-U, 1816).
Catholic theology, basing itself on these declarations, has further clarified the concept of mystery, particularly by distinguishing true and proper mysteries from other natural and supernatural truths more or less hidden from the human intellect.
The mysteries properly so called («vere et proprie dicta mysteria», as the Council expresses it) are truths: 1) hidden in God, which do not enter into the natural body of knowledge of any created intellect; 2) consequently, they cannot be known except through divine revelation; 3) even when known through revelation, they cannot be understood as perfectly as the truths that constitute the proper object of our intellect, but always remain as though covered by a veil that makes them «mysterious». The first characteristic clearly distinguishes Christian mysteries from all truths unknown to us but belonging to the sphere of created realities: the secrets of physical nature (e.g., the ultimate composition of matter and energy), or the secrets of the inner life (e.g., the thought and free will of others). This characteristic distinguishes Christian mysteries in particular from revealed truths that can also be known naturally, such as the existence of God. The second characteristic is a logical consequence of the first: a truth that is «hidden in God» and known by God alone cannot be known by us except because he reveals II. There are, however, many revealed truths that manifest a free divine decision and therefore could not be known without revelation, but which, once revealed, can be perfectly understood. For example, Paul’s choice as «apostle of the gentiles», and the election of Peter as head of the apostolic college and of the Church. These truths are sometimes called «mysteries», but in a relative sense: what cannot be naturally known by the human intellect is their existence, not their nature. The third characteristic, therefore, is what radically distinguishes true and proper mysteries from every other hidden truth: they are truths that completely transcend the comprehension of every created intellect; to be perfectly understood, they require a direct vision of the divine essence. The «true and proper mysteries» are truths evident to the divine intellect, which contemplates them in its own infinite essence (v. SCIENZA DIVINA); but they cannot become evident to a created intellect when communicated to it through limited concepts, incapable of representing them in their infinite simplicity. The reason for the incomprehensibility of Christian mysteries is therefore their supernatural character (v. ADOZIONE SOPRANNATURALE).
III. EXISTENCE AND KNOWABILITY
No official document of the Church provides a precise list of the mysteries properly so called; nevertheless, there are sufficient elements in the ordinary teaching to enable us to know which revealed truths are regarded as mysteries properly so called. Scripture (Mt. 11:25-27; I Cor. 2:7-16; I Io. 3:1-2) suggests as truths intrinsically superior to our intelligence the Trinitarian mystery and our future participation in divine life. In a letter of Pio IX (Gravissimas inter, of 11 December 1862), which summarizes the entire tradition of Christian thought, it is said that among the dogmas which elude the possibility of natural demonstration (and therefore, indirectly, of full comprehension) there must be included “most certainly those truths which concern the supernatural elevation of man and his supernatural relationship with God. Since these truths are supernatural, they can never be attained by natural reason through natural principles: natural reason can never become capable of treating these dogmas scientifically («scientia tractare») through its natural principles” (Denz-U, 1671). Therefore, all revealed truths that manifest a supernatural reality in the strict sense belong to the mysteries properly so called. Among them, common catechetical teaching places the mystery of the Incarnation. But there may be added the Eucharist, and the Sacraments in general, the Church considered as the Mystical Body of Christ, the divine life in us, or the mystery of Grace and of the divine presence, the beatific vision, and original sin.A fundamental question inevitably arises from the exposition of the Catholic concept of mystery: namely, how mysteries can be intelligible if they are truths naturally superior to created intelligence, and what value their knowledge can have for us if, ultimately, they represent incongruities. In reality, although mysteries are superior to the capacity of human comprehension, they are not without any relation to other truths that fall within the capacity of our intelligence: in theological language, they are said to present an analogy with truths already known, and this analogy is sufficient to enable us to attain a certain (aliquity) initial understanding of them and to grasp their meaning. Thus, from the usual concept of fatherhood and sonship, one can come to understand what Fatherhood and Sonship mean in the Trinitarian mystery, despite being convinced that the Father and the Son are not related to one another in a way identical to that which exists among human beings between father and son. In the mystery, faith perceives the existence of a naturally unknowable relationship, but one analogous to a known relationship.
The revelation of the mysteries finds its explanation not in itself but in the end that God wishes to achieve through it: it is an anticipation of the clear vision of divine reality, which he has prepared as a reward for those who “sanctify themselves as he is holy” (I Io. 3:3). It is an act of friendship (Io. 15:15) by which God, revealing to man his inmost being, draws him into a life of spiritual communion with him, a preparation and condition for a future full and indissoluble communion in the beatific vision. For this reason, meditation on the fundamental “mysteries” of Christianity has always been, for Christian souls, a source of deeper religious knowledge and of a more generous life.
1928, 8ª ed., pp. 441-42, nota 2; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, De revelatione per Ecclesiam catholicam proposita, I, Roma 1934, cap. 5; A. Michel, Mystère, in DThC, X, coll. 2585-99; D. Deden, Le mystère paulinien, in Ephem. Theol. Lov., 13 (1936), pp. 405-442; H. von Balthasar, Le mystérien d'Origine, in Rech. de Scien. relig., 26 (1936), pp. 513-62; 27 (1937), pp. 38-64; J. M. Scheeben, I. m. del Cristianesimo, trad. II. di I. Gorlani, Brescia 1949. Carlo Colombo