Reflection - Unknowns

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/010318.cfm
1 John 2:29-3:6
John 1:29-34

My youngest grandchild lives just a few minutes away. His parents resided close by even at the time he was born, and one of my greatest pleasures has been watching him explore the world. He’s just a few weeks past his first year at present; and one of the more fascinating things that has recently come to his attention is a battery-powered miniature train. What wonder to see a mechanical thing move by force of some mysterious power. It goes without being pushed by a hand. It’s wheels turn without being spun by a finger. Only a minutia of the world is now known to him. What marvels, what an abundance of potential knowledge lies ahead. He has a veritable cornucopia of mysteries to explore just like the variety of unknowns hidden in his toy box.

From a different perspective we might recall 2002. That was the year when Donald Rumsfeld, who was Secretary of Defense at the time, added to his notoriety at a news conference by stating the following:

As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

The circumstance which occasioned Rumsfeld’s comment was a geo-political one, but the readings for today brought his words to mind and they seemed an appropriate, though admittedly curious, introduction. Both of the Scripture texts are from John, so it should come as no surprise that we find a common theme running through both: That which is known and that which is not known.

John begins with an assumed known: “God, in his being, is righteous.”

From that he concludes a logical known: a person acting in a righteous manner has been inspired to do so by God.

So, if there are righteous men in the world, that righteousness must have come from God, thereby indicating that such men should be called ‘children of God.’ Thus, he names what is known: We are, in fact, what we are named: We are children of God.

From there he proceeds to an unknown: the world does not know us because the world does not know God. In other words, how can you expect those who have no inkling of what righteousness is to recognize that which is born of righteousness.

In the Gospel text we find John the Baptist dealing with his personal knowns and unknowns. He knows, he says, why he came baptizing with water: he knows that he came baptizing so as to make the one coming after him known to the children of Israel even though he himself did not, at the time, know who that person would be. But, in the end, the Lord, who sent him to Baptize, revealed to him who that person was. So what John did not know before, he now knows: “On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one.”

Exploring all these knowns and unknowns may seem a bit tedious; but they raise an important question for us as this New Year begins.

The very existence of God is an unlimited cache of awesome mystification. His presence is a wonder beyond imagination. His power is of mind-blowing dimensions. His presence is incomprehensible, yet singularly intimate. As we do for our grandson, God does for us. He presents a cornucopia of mystery to explore. And he is warmed by our efforts to discover all we can in our search to know Him.

After Rumsfeld’s remarks a couple of German sociologists made this observation:

Our cognitive framework may be determined by the relationship between what we know, what we do not know, what we cannot know, but Rumsfeld left out what we do not like to know.

To that critique I would add: what we do not bother to know.

As I begin the New Year I find the Scriptures highlighted with fluorescent, luminous, glow-in-the-dark ink, reminding me of the marvels God has invited me to know in knowing Him. As he did for John the Baptist, God himself will make himself known to us. How can I not bother to seek to know Him better?