Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our lives are full of mystery. How did our future spouses happen to be in the grocery store, the bookstore, or the same class we were taking, at the exact moment when we “bumped into them,” all those years ago? How did all those moments line up to put us in the right place at the right time? It’s a mystery.

Is our solar system unique? Until as recently as the 1990s, the answer would have been “no.” But today, we know that we are not alone. And then a million new mysteries confound. Is there “conscious” life outside planet Earth? That’s the question that informs every science fiction book and movie. Will some of those mysteries be solved in our lifetimes?

I think that Jesus was mysterious. His birth was announced by angels, and a STAR in the heavens. Two elderly prophets recognized him when his parents brought him to the Temple, and, twelve years later, teachers in the courtyard of that same Temple were amazed at his questions.

Years later, surrounded by the hungry and the sick, he promised that everyone who asks will receive, and everyone who seeks will find (Lk. 11:9-10). With what assurance? It’s a mystery. And then there was the time he encouraged his friend Mary to sit at his feet and learn, and nudged her sister Martha to leave her work to join him (Lk. 10:38-42). How did this first-century Orthodox Jew understand what would take another two thousand years to finally enter the culture?

But the greatest, and most indelible mystery? Christ in you, your hope of glory (Col. 1:27). He lives in you. He is in you every moment. Be at peace.

Kathy McGovern ©2025 www.thestoryandyou.com