August 21, 2005: The Labyrinth

+THE TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME


Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! (Romans 11: 33).

Inscrutable: impossible to understand or figure out.

Our God’s plans and methods are so unknown, so beyond us, so impossible to understand or figure out, that words don’t begin to convey the depth of the mystery. Yet it is smack-dab in the middle of that very mystery that we live and breathe and journey towards eternity. All we know—and we know it only on faith—is that God is the sum-total of perfection. So as much as this world and this journey are impossible to figure out, they are nonetheless the product of God’s total wisdom and love… and therefore when we trust and put ourselves in God’s hands, even though we are flying blind, we are totally safe.

One of the more interesting ways that the Church has illustrated this belief has been through an art form known as the labyrinth. Perhaps the most famous labyrinth in the world dates back to the year 1300 and is in the Cathedral of Chartres, not too far from Paris. (To read more about the Cathedral and Labyrinth, and to see photos, visit: http://www.labyrinthos.net/chartpics.htm)

The labyrinth is like a maze, except there are no wrong turns or dead ends. It’s a walking meditation in the form of a circular pattern of stone tiles in the cathedral floor. A narrow path weaves back and forth within this 42-foot-diameter circle. A person starts at the outside of the circle and follows the path very slowly as it doubles and redoubles back upon itself until eventually it reaches the center of the circle. The distance from start to center and back is about a third of a mile.

Walking the labyrinth is deceptive. When you start out, it looks like you’re heading directly for the center, when in fact you’re actually at the farthest point away from it. And then, just moments before you do come to the center, you’re walking near the outermost edge of the circle. Among other things, walking the labyrinth makes you confront the world of mystery and illusion—the difference between our rigid perception of how the world works and God’s inscrutable way: the way the world really works.

It can be a humbling experience, because you’re forced to look beyond the familiar evidence that your eyes and your brain feed you, and instead stretch for the mysterious and unseen.

A person can gain many interesting insights in walking and meditating the labyrinth. One thought might occur to you when you reach the center. As you look out, you see the path that you walked from the beginning…with all its complexity, frustrations and endless twists and turns. What a beautiful metaphor for life! Aren’t events that seem to be meaningless, or even wasteful, taking us to our destination just as surely as the twisting and turning path of the labyrinth?

Perhaps the path we’re on just seems random because we’re still on it. Only at the completion of the journey—when we’re in the center—can we see for sure that the strange way did have a logical and purposeful destination.

As we journey through life, we all experience many times when we cry out, “Why, God?” Why this burden? Why this setback? Why this heavy cross? Those are not bad or sinful questions. They’re human questions. Even the saints asked them.

But God says nothing except, “Look at Jesus”—the one to whom Peter says today, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus teaches us how to stay on the funny, twisting and frustrating narrow path of the labyrinth when every bit of human logic tells us to run for the hills. And we can and will make it because God has implanted in our soul a divine spark—a divine GPS/global positioning system chip, you might say—that is our homing device. This is the core of our conscience and our being.

And just the way that highways and roadways have signposts to guide us as we travel along, so does God’s church serve to reassure us and reorient us when necessary. Peter got the keys to run the guidance system.

With all these safeguards in place, and with God actively watching over the whole shooting match, there is absolutely nothing in life to be afraid of. We’re loved, we’re safe, the path is marked out for us. The gift of life is a great gift, a great treasure, and the Lord wants us to embrace it with gusto and enjoy it thoroughly—to experience its richness, to share its blessings with everyone, and not to be disconcerted by even the nastiest twists and turns.

How come? Who knows the mind of God? Maybe it’s like going on a giant roller coaster ride that’s both scary and thrilling. When we step off at the end of the ride, with our knees still knocking but with a very big grin, maybe God is standing there to say with a wink, “Wasn’t that great?”

In the words of the opening prayer of this mass, May all the attractions of a changing world serve only to bring us the peace of your kingdom which this world does not give. Amen.


Today’s Readings:
Isaiah 22: 19–23
Psalm 138
Romans 11: 33–36
Matthew 16: 13–20