A second glance at the Holy Family...

In this special post which Theologos has submitted to fill in while Cliff is indisposed, he explores another dimension of the recent discussions on the Holy Family that have been taking place both in commentaries and on the discussion forum itself. He asks us to "consider the possibility that Divine Wisdom intervened in the life of Mary and Joseph, to enable the outcome to be as it has been revealed within Holy Scripture".

Are families all they are reported to be? May we consider the possibility that Divine Wisdom intervened in the life of Mary and Joseph, to enable the outcome to be as it has been revealed within Holy Scripture. I am asking the reader to ponder the thought that The Creator might well have created the super natural events that confront us when we are reading the life of The Holy Family. That we are prepared to accept that creation is the result of The Creator's plan, it might well be possible for us also to appreciate that The Creator has His way of helping us understand that not all that appears, is what it appears to be.

When we approach scripture with the microscope of the rational human mind, we are bound to recognise that which does not compute with human reasoning.

To imagine that the examining human detective will unravel the supernatural, is to wonder whether scientific research will ever produce a result that reveals the inexplicable through methods that are limited by the human senses. The plausible nature of Holy Scripture is never understood in the willingness of its reader to interpret the treasure that lies within its words, according to the reasoning powers of the human being. Human reason and Divine Wisdom are separate revelations of reality. It is only when the reader of Holy Scripture elects to deny itself its perceived right to be the interpreter of The Creator's words, that a clarity of understanding reveals itself to those who live in faith and not through the lens of human reasoning.

The perpetual virginity of Mary, Mother of God should be viewed in the light of the result as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. For if we are to appreciate the words of Holy Scripture as that which is the plan of Our Father, then needs be we should also recognise that Mary's virginity is the choice of God to reveal His being within the life of the human being we call Jesus of Nazareth. That God is omnipotent is to further recognise that with God all things are made possible, when human life realises its purpose in being the revelation of a specific divine plan of creation. Thus, we may understand that Mary's virgin conception of Jesus, is as plausible a reality as is the existence of the divinely inspired evolving plan of creation. To question the revelations of Holy Scripture as an exercise in mind boggling wonder, is itself the reward that God grants all human beings in order for human life to recognise its very clear limitations of understanding when observing creation through the perplexing functioning of the human brain.

The thought that life is as it appears to be, might well encourage all of us to wonder why in our willingness to limit our understandings of creation to that which satisfies our human desire to explain everything that cannot possibly be we are denying ourself the recognition of reality as it is, rather than how we perceive to be.

Mary, Mother of Jesus of Nazareth is best recognised as being the very presence of purity, within the prospect of her life being the result of her choice to be the revelation of all that we know as God, among us. To imagine that The Creator would make promises that He would not or could not implement, is to restrict our understandings of God to that which best fits in with our willingness to view God, according to the limitations imposed upon the human senses.

The objective detective will always bear in mind that the results that appear in our life, should also form part of the equation that we consider when attempting to fathom the inexplicable as that which will be difficult for the human mind to compute, when choosing to ignore that which is in view but always out of sight.

The reward that The Creator grants those of us who view life with an open canvas, is to become the artist of our destiny in life's request to us to be its paint brush of all that Mary kept in her heart when recognising that the angel Gabriel's annunciation was more than a figment of her imagination.

Photo Credits: The images used as background to this article
come from stock.xchng the free web photo source – www.sxc.hu
Top two photos: Christer Rønning Austad, Oslo, Norway
Bottom photo: Christophe Libert, Paris, France

Nathanael Theologos is the pen name of a Catholic priest and clinical psychologist based in the Mediterranean.

Nathanael Theologos can be contacted at:
theologos@catholica.com.au

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