Why is the Church a Mystery?

Often when the word "Church" is used the first idea that comes to people's mind is the "Body of Christ", but as Catholics, when asked what does that looks like the response is often presented as the hierarchical structure of the Church.  The laity respond and  say the Church is the pope followed by cardinals, bishops, priests, laity, etc.  Consequently, the laity often view the Church in terms of her visibility. The Church is not just visible, but also invisible. Just as my body is comprised of both visible and invisible parts, so to is the "Body of Christ".  If I was in front of you right now you could see my nose and my arms, but you could not see my heart.  The same is true in regards to the Church, the hierarchical structure of the Church is the visible aspect of the Church, whereas the spiritual aspect of the Church is invisible, but nonetheless just as real than the visible aspect.  In fact the invisible aspect of the Church is even more real, because the invisible aspect of the Church is divine.

What connects the invisible realities of the Church to the visible realities of the Church are the sacraments.  The sacraments are the very heart of the Church, for without the sacraments there is no Church (in the Catholic sense) but what Vatican II would call "ecclesial communities".  Why is this? Because the sacraments connects the invisible mystery of Christ, himself, to our visible world (CCC 774). The sacraments reveal the very mystery of Christ through signs and symbols. In the analogous sense, one can say that the Church herself is a sacrament, conveying the invisible mystery of Christ and his salvation to the visible world (CCC 774):

Since the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race, it desires now to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and to the whole world its own inner nature and universal mission. (Lumen Gentium 1)

The Church is the catalyst between invisible God and visible humanity (CCC 775), thereby connecting the invisible with the visible realities of our Faith.  However the Church is not just a means of bringing the invisible God to the visible world, but rather she has her own identity, nature, and purpose.    

So what does the word "mystery" actually mean?

Before explaining the theological understanding of mystery, first the general understanding of "mystery" needs to be explained. So what does the word  "mystery" mean? In general terms it means "something that is hidden".  For example in a murder mystery, the murderer is "hidden" until the very end of the story. Does this mean that the murderer could not be known? No, the audience could know who the murderer is at the very beginning of the story, that is if the murderer decided to reveal himself, but what fun would that be.  All the the audience can do is sit back, watch, and guess, while the murderer slowly reveals himself by dropping clues, until the end, when the audience discovers the  murderer.  Notice that the audience can only "discover" who is the murderer, the audience can in no way change or create the murderer.

Here is another example: about five hundred years ago,  the workings of the human body was a "mystery" or something hidden to science, but over the past five hundred years, many of these mysteries became known or understood through science.  However, there are some things we may never fully understand about the human body, such as consciousness, yes certain things can be understood about consciousness, but science will never fully understand consciousness (although some may claim that science will someday, but that is a different story for another day).

My point is that we are surrounded by mysteries everyday, and often we do not give these mysteries a second thought. However when people talk about supernatural or religious mysteries, the first response from our modern society is skepticism.  The reason why the supernatural mysteries of this world are met with skepticism is that it requires faith to believe in these mysteries (more on this in another blog post).

Now take this understanding of mystery and apply it to our Catholic Faith.  The principle still applies. The Trinity, Christ, the Incarnation, Redemption, the Sacraments, the Church, etc. are all mysteries, meaning that we can know and understand these teachings of our Faith, just never fully.  Like science always learning more about the mysteries of world around us, so to in our Catholic Faith there is always more to learn because the topic of our knowledge is infinite.  Thus the teachings of our Faith will always be "mysterious" in some way, shape, or form, but that should not prevent us from diving in in to these sacred mysteries and learning.

The Church is a Mystery because of her relationship with the Trinity 

Chapter 1 of the Vatican II constitution, Lumen Gentium, is entitled "The Mystery of the Church". Here the council fathers begin to explain the meaning of "Church" in relation to the Trinity (ar. 2-4). The reason for this, is because the mystery of the Church can only be understood in relationship to the mystery of the triune God, who gave us the Church through the incarnation of the the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.  In other words, the Church is a mystery because the very source of her existence, that is God, is a mystery as well.  Therefore the mystery of the Church finds her meaning within the mystery of the Trinity.

Vatican II expresses itself very clearly  on this point. Through the truth of faith concerning the Holy Trinity the Church not only comes close to the most intimate mystery of God but also to its own mystery...(Karol Wojtyła [St. John Paul II] Sources of Renewal pg. 55).

One of the main elements in Vatican II is the Church's self revelation, or consciousness as St. John Paul II would refer to in his book Sources of Renewal.  Imagine the Church as a living breathing organism, an organism that can become self-aware, a human organism (1 Cor 12:12-26). One thing that is unique about a person is the ability to be self-aware and to reflect on his own identity as a person, the ability to discover or know oneself.  Just as man is mystery to himself, he begins to discover his own identity through his experiences and relationships with God and others.  Similarly, the Church is a mystery unto herself, but she begins to recognize her own identity with God and with others through the history of the Church Councils, specifically with Vatican II.  In other words Vatican II was meant to be a time of "self-discovery" for Church in light of Trinity, because it is only in the Trinity the Church can discover her true identity.  Therefore, to properly define the Church, one cannot begin with the visible understanding of the Church, like most of the laity do, but with the invisible, spiritual, triune side of the Church.

Why is the Mystery of the Church so Important?

To begin defining the Church as a mystery is important because it leads us to a deeper understanding of what "Church" actually means.  To take away the "mystical" aspect of the Church is to reduce the Church to a mere institution, something exists for purely pragmatic purposes. When the Church is reduced to a pragmatic purposes,  the Church becomes bureaucratic. The sacraments, and sacramental preparation classes become "hoops" for the laity to jump through, instead of moments where the laity can be fully enraptured into Christ, and his mystical body, the Church.

Unfortunately the secular culture today seeks to solve all the mysteries of the universe, including spiritual mysteries,  and tries to leave no stone unturned.  In fact I would go as far as to say that the secular culture fears any type of supernatural  mystery, and dismisses these supernatural mysteries as "superstition".  Taking away the mystical aspect of the Church takes away the mysticism of the sacraments, and when this occurs, the rites and ritual intertwined in the sacraments loses its meaning. Consequently, if the mystical meaning of the Church (and doctrine in general) is lost, then catechizing the laity on the meaning of Church, the sacraments, and eventually the entire deposit of faith, becomes useless knowledge to the laity resulting little to no conversions.

The sacrament of marriage, for example, is a supernatural mystery, an image between Christ and his Church, between God the Father and his people.  However marriage preparation has lost this sense of mystery and reduces marriage preparation to what is only practical, such as, how couples must be able to communicate with each other, how to get their finances in order, how to make practical decisions, etc. When the mystical aspect of marriage is excluded, then sacrament of marriage is reduced to the secular understanding of marriage, which has no meaning today.  And if the the secular understanding of marriage and the Catholic understanding of marriage (without the mystical aspect) looks the same, then question arises: Why get married in the Catholic Church at all?  Discussion topics such as: communication, fiances, sex, and where to have the reception, can all be explained outside of the Catholic Church.  

So what would be the remedy to this? The remedy would be presenting the mystical aspect of marriage like in St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body. St. John Paul II presents the mystical aspect of marriage, thereby causing the laity to ponder on the beauty of marriage. When the laity experience the beauty and mysticism of the marriage, then issues such as, divorce, contraception, etc. are able to be explained with clarity, and with love.  By teaching the mystical aspect of marriage couples can now aspire to something greater than themselves, thereby making marriage something to look forward to.  However when marriage taught without the mystical aspect, the marriage become purely perfunctory, the hard teachings become much more difficult to teach, and are often dismissed by the uncatechized.

As the laity, our role is to present the mysteries of the Catholic Faith in such a way that the audience is left pondering these great mysteries wanting to come back for more.  Therefore when catechesis is taught about the meaning of "Church", it should not be reduced to the Church's functions of providing the sacraments and feeding the poor, but taught in such away that it leaves the audience pondering her great beauty because she is married to Christ, and finds her mysterious beauty in the Trinity.