MYSTERY. - In current Catholic teaching, a mystery is a truth revealed by God, which the human intellect cannot discover by its own powers alone, and which, even once known through revelation, can never be perfectly understood.
I. THE TERM
The word μυστήριον (whence the Latin mysterium and the Italian m.) had in Hellenistic Greek a twofold meaning, profane and religious: in the first sense it indicated a hidden truth or reality, a secret; in the second sense, especially in the plural, it served to indicate "the mysteries" (v.), those rites of religious initiation, regarding which the initiates had to preserve the most absolute secrecy. In the Old Testament the term appears with both meanings: religiously it designates "the secrets of God," that is, the designs of his providence unknown to us (Wis. 2:22) or a hidden divine reality such as "Wisdom" (Wis. 6:22). In the New Testament the term is found 28 times, 21 of which in St. Paul. There it sometimes takes on the sense of a reality having symbolic religious value (Eph. 5:32), or of a reality operating in a mysterious way (II Thess. 2:7). More often, however, it indicates a truth known to God alone and graciously manifested by him to men (e.g., Mk. 4:11 and parallels). In St. Paul it means especially 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 language, where, however, it also took on another, derived from the religious meaning of Hellenism: "m." is also used by Christians for 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 of sacred rite, was expressed by two terms mysterium and sacramentum, which at first were used interchangeably. Only with time did their meaning become specific: mysterium (and the Italian m.) was reserved to express the hidden truths of Christianity, while sacramentum (sacrament) was reserved to designate the rites or the sacred realities.
II. THE CONCEPT
The current Catholic concept of mystery is a refinement and a deepening of the biblical meaning. Its elaboration took place during the patristic and scholastic periods, although it was only at the Vatican Council that it was solemnly defined by the Church. Certain biblical statements clearly contain the concept of a truth hidden in God, naturally unknowable to anyone who is not God, and communicated to men by Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt. 11:25-27; Jn. 1:18; 1 Cor. 2:7-16). Starting from these statements, Christian thought soon distinguished two orders of truth: those that men can know by their own intelligence, and those inaccessible to the human intellect, indeed to every intelligence that is not God's. Among the latter were placed the fundamental truths of the Christian religion: the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son of God, heavenly beatitude, the Eucharist. Later, on several occasions, various attempts arose to demonstrate these fundamental truths rationally, or attempts to give interpretations of them that would make them perfectly "evident" to the human intelligence; typical is Abelard's attempt regarding the Trinity. The attempt was repeated, in a more serious form, in the last century, both by non-Christian philosophers such as Hegel and by Catholic theologians such as Hermes (v.), Günther (v.), Frohschammer (v.).
Against these errors the precise dogmatic formulation of the concept of mystery was elaborated at the 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 it is divine faith; the object of knowledge in the first order is solely natural truths, in the second there are, besides certain truths that the natural intelligence 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 heretical anyone who says that "in divine revelation no true and proper mystery is contained, but that all the dogmas of the faith can be (perfectly) comprehended and demonstrated by the duly developed intelligence" (Denz-U, 1816).
Catholic theology, basing itself on these declarations, has further refined the concept of mystery, particularly by distinguishing true and proper mysteries from other natural and supernatural truths more or less hidden from the human intelligence.
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 knowable order of any created intelligence; 2) consequently they cannot be known except through divine revelation; 3) even when known through revelation they cannot be so perfectly comprehended as the truths that form the proper object of our intelligence, but always remain as it were covered by a veil that makes them "mysterious." The first characteristic note clearly distinguishes the Christian mysteries from all truths unknown to us but comprised within the sphere of created realities: secrets of the physical world (for example, the ultimate composition of matter and of energy) or the secrets of the interior life (for example, the thought and free will of others). This characteristic distinguishes in particular the Christian mysteries from those revealed truths that can also be known naturally, for example, the existence of God. The second characteristic is a logical consequence of the first: a truth that is "hidden in God" and that God alone knows cannot be known by us except because he reveals it. There are, however, many revealed truths that manifest a free divine decision, which therefore could not be known without revelation, but which, once revealed, can be perfectly comprehended. For example, the choice of Paul as "apostle of the Gentiles," 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 is not naturally knowable to the human intelligence is their existence, not their nature. The third characteristic is therefore the one that radically distinguishes true and proper mysteries from every other hidden truth: they are truths that completely transcend the comprehensive capacity of every created intelligence; in order to be perfectly comprehended they require a direct vision of the divine essence. "True and proper mysteries" are truths evident to the divine intelligence, which contemplates them in its own infinite essence (v. SCIENZA DIVINA); but they cannot become evident to a created intelligence when they are communicated to it through limited concepts, incapable of representing them in their infinite simplicity. The reason for the incomprehensibility of the Christian mysteries is therefore their supernatural character (v. ORDINE SOPRANNATURALE).
III. EXISTENCE AND KNOWABILITY
No official document of the Church gives a precise list of the mysteries properly so called; nevertheless there are sufficient elements in ordinary teaching to let us know which revealed truths are held to be mysteries properly so called. Scripture (Mt. 11:25-27; 1 Cor. 2:7-16; 1 Jn. 3:1-2) suggests as truths intrinsically superior to our intelligence the Trinitarian mystery and our future participation in the divine life. In a letter of Pius IX (Gravissimas inter, of 11 Dec. 1862), which sums up the whole tradition of Christian thought, it is said that among the dogmas that escape the possibility of a natural demonstration (and therefore, indirectly, of a full comprehension) there must be included "most certainly those truths that concern the supernatural elevation of man and his supernatural relationship with God. These truths, being supernatural, can never be attained by natural reason with natural principles: natural reason can never become capable of treating these dogmas scientifically ("scientia tractare") with 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 one may add: the Eucharist, and in general the Sacraments, 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, original sin.
A fundamental question inevitably arises from the exposition of the Catholic concept of mystery: namely, how the mysteries can be intelligible, if they are truths by their nature superior to the created intelligence, and what value their knowledge can have for us, if they ultimately represent things unknown. In reality the mysteries, although superior to the capacity of human comprehension, are not without any relation to other truths that fall within the capacity of our intelligence: in theological language it is said that they present an analogy with truths already known, and this analogy is sufficient to obtain a certain (aliqua) initial understanding of them, and to make their meaning understood. Thus from the usual concept of paternity and sonship, one can come to understand what Paternity and Sonship mean in the Trinitarian mystery, even though one is persuaded that the Father and the Son do not stand to each other in a relationship identical to that which exists among men between father and son. In the mystery one perceives by faith the existence of a relationship naturally unknowable, but analogous to a known relationship.
The revelation of the mysteries has its explanation not in itself, but in the end that God wishes to obtain by it: it is an anticipation of the clear vision of the divine reality, which he holds prepared as a reward for those who "sanctify themselves as he is holy" (1 Jn. 3:3). It is an act of friendship (Jn. 15:15) by which God, unveiling to man the intimacy of himself, draws him to a life of spiritual communion with him, a preparation and condition of a future communion full and indissoluble in the beatific vision. For this reason the meditation of the fundamental "mysteries" of Christianity has always been, for Christian souls, a source of a deepening of religious knowledge and of a more generous life.
Bibliography4 works
1928, 8th ed., pp. 441-42, note 2; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, De revelatione per Ecclesiam catholicam proposita, I, Rome 1934, ch. 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, Italian trans. by I. Gorlani, Brescia 1949.
Carlo Colombo