May 7thConclave and Mystery
To my dear TFMC family,
I’ve been preoccupied this week with Conclave. Not the film, although that is on my list to see, but the practice of selecting a new pope by the Roman Catholic Church. I have experienced conclave twice in my lifetime, the conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI and the conclave to elect Pope Francis. Each time I’ve been distracted and interested in it. And I think this year, I’ve come to understand why. It’s not because it’s a practice with deep tradition, rather, because it’s a practice with an air of mystery.
In our culture one could argue, unless you’re a scientist, that there aren’t many unexplained mysteries anymore. Many of our mysteries can be solved, rationalized, figured out, or explained away in one way or another. We have great computing centers which churn through copious amounts of data per second. If we have a question it can be quickly answered by either a quick google search, or nowadays a quick ask of ChatGPT. We are surrounded by data, and answers.
Which is why the mystery of conclave is so engrossing and curious to me. It’s analog. The only communication is by a smokestack, and the colour of the smoke from said smokestack.
And this got me thinking this week, how, perhaps, we need a little bit more mystery in our lives. We need a few more unsolvable curiosities in our lives. I was talking with a colleague this week who commented that pastors have such strange jobs in that we speak for, or on behalf, of God. And when one thinks about it, that’s really odd.
So much of our faith is rooted in mystery, and allowing mystery to be. And yet, in our quest for answers, that mystery sometimes becomes a barrier to faith, rather than an invitation. Consider the Resurrection. Some folk have walked away from faith because they couldn’t explain the mystery of the Resurrection. I have no idea how the Resurrection works, and I’m not sure I need to. Or creation, there is a whole stream of Chrsitian theology dedicated to explaining how Creation occurred, I’m OK with it being a mystery. Or take for example our theology of the Trinity, that God is Jesus is the Holy Spirit, the three-in-one, and they are also separate. If that doesn’t make your grey matter hurt trying to explain it, I don’t know what will. I’m OK with that being a mystery. In fact, for any of these, I don’t think knowing the ‘how’, would be nearly as satisfying as having the question, and wondering.
For me, at least, I’m comfortable enough knowing that Jesus has risen from the dead, trusting that God created, or having faith in the Trinity, that the ‘why’ or the ‘how’ doesn’t matter as much. Maybe I’m embracing a second naivety in my faith, where the ‘why’ and the how aren’t as interesting as sitting and being curious with the unexplainable mystery, without the need for an answer.
There is deep tradition and mystery projected in conclaves. Once the words “extra omnes” are spoken, no one except for the cardinals in that chapel knows what unfolds, what discussions, what prayers, what words are said or how the next pope is elected, once the doors are closed. And, as an Anabaptist Mennonite conclave doesn’t really matter or impact me, and at the same time, it is a bit of a welcome reminder of the importance of mystery in our faith.
Yours,
Craig Janzen Neufeld, Pastor