Each issue carries an imprimatur from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Reprinting prohibited

by Jeffrey Kaster

Our parish youth group spent an hour trying to figure out this two-minute mystery game: "Bobby and Joey are dead on the carpet in a pool of water. How did they die?"

We asked question after question until we finally discovered that Bobby and Joey were fish whose aquarium had broken in an earthquake!

Everybody loves a mystery. As children many of us loved to read mystery books like the Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. Mystery by its very nature excites curiosity: Who did it? What happened? Why? Mysteries are interesting because they can be mind-boggling and cause you to think deeply.

We have a vital mystery at the very center of our Christian faith. Every Sunday at Eucharist, the priest asks the congregation to proclaim this publicly when he sings or says, "Let us proclaim the mystery of faith."

Why a Mystery?

Long ago, Pope Paul VI said, "The Church is a mystery. It [is] within the very nature of the Church to be always open to new and greater exploration." Karl Rahner, a great theologian, says that mystery is one of Christianity’s most important words. God is Christianity’s most important mystery, according to Rahner.

God is beyond knowing (mystery beyond complete understanding), but God chooses to communicate and share knowledge of the Divine Self with us. One of life’s great mysteries is how we come to know God’s love and follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. This mystery fills us with curiosity and leads us to seek the Lord.

Some seem more curious about God than others. Do you have questions about faith? Do you wonder about God and why things turn out the way they do? Do you ever think about your purpose in life? When you have questions like these, you are exploring the mystery of faith.

John Westerhoff, who has written about how faith grows, coined the phrase "searching faith" to describe the natural development within teenagers. Westerhoff suggests that part of being a teenager means asking lots of questions about God and faith. Searching is good because it helps you grow in your knowledge and understanding of Christ’s love.

So what is the main mystery of the Christian faith? When the priest invites us to proclaim the mystery of faith, we answer, "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again." The Church has a special name for this core doctrine of our faith: the paschal mystery.

Mystery Word

The paschal mystery is the life, death, resurrection and return in glory of Jesus Christ. The word paschal comes from the Jewish concept of Passover (pasch). Moses led the Hebrews as they passed over from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. A paschal experience is a journey or passage from slavery to freedom.

Jesus experienced this journey when he died on the cross and rose from the dead. This was a Passover journey from the slavery of sin and death to freedom in the resurrection.

This journey is not one Jesus took alone. It’s your journey, too. "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again" means two things. First and foremost, it means that Jesus’ death and resurrection overcame sin and death, which allows you to experience eternal life in heaven. It also means Jesus travels with you when you experience the paschal journey. Your life also contains crosses and resurrections.

We are initiated into the death and resurrection of Jesus in our Baptism. A few years ago during the Easter Vigil a number of adults were baptized at my parish in a new way that is actually a return to a practice in the early days of the Church.

The adults were fully immersed in the baptismal water. Being under the water symbolized their dying with Christ. Their sin and all their brokenness were united with Jesus on the cross. Coming out of the water symbolized their rising from sin and death with Christ on Easter morning. After their Baptism, they dried off and put on a new white robe to symbolize that they were new creations in Christ.

Did you know this dying and rising with Christ doesn’t only happen at Baptism, the other sacraments or when we die and go to heaven? The paschal mystery can also be experienced in big and small ways every day. Any time we journey from slavery to freedom, we encounter this main mystery.

Mystery of Pain

Jamie was a 15-year-old who shared her paschal journey with our parish youth. She told us that a few years earlier she was diagnosed with cancer, but was now cancer-free.

Jamie said she went through chemotherapy and lost all her hair. She spoke of her fear of going to school wearing a wig. She said in many ways it was the most terrible experience in her life.

Jamie also told us that all sorts of people had prayed for her and that she prayed regularly too, but that all the prayers didn’t take the pain of the chemotherapy away. Then Jamie said something that amazed all of us. She said, "Sometimes I think I’m actually glad I had cancer. Having cancer changed me for the better. All the hard times made me into a stronger person. This new strength helped me realize that I can now survive nearly anything with the help of my family, friends and God.

"I realize that I am not alone. I appreciate my family so much more than I did before I had cancer. Although I’m only 15, I now feel happy about who I am and confident about my purpose in life."

Jamie’s story is a paschal-mystery story. Her cross was her cancer, chemotherapy and the loss of her hair. Her resurrection was her healing from cancer and her experience of love from Christ and her family. Her life took on new meaning and direction because of this experience.

It’s not often clear why people suffer. Why do some people suffer from cancer? Why are some healed while others die? As Christians we believe that through all the crosses of life Jesus is with us and brings us home to God’s loving arms.

It was very interesting to watch the effect that Jamie had on us as she told her story. All of us experienced a little of Jamie’s cross and resurrection as she spoke.

This is part of the mystery. When paschal stories are told, Christ is revealed. Do you have a paschal story? Have you heard stories of others’ journey from the cross to the resurrection?

Catholics have many ways in which they are invited to reflect on and ritualize the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At Eucharist, Catholics remember and celebrate the paschal mystery. You may also be wearing a necklace with a crucifix on it. Did you ever think about what the cross means?

The seasons of Lent and Easter are filled with symbols and rituals encouraging you to take a deeper look at the paschal journey of Jesus. The ashes you receive on Ash Wednesday symbolize death. You are asked to remember that, like Jesus, you too will die. The water blessing on Easter and the new Easter candle are both signs of resurrection.

Sign of Mystery

Good Friday’s liturgy includes a ritual called the veneration of the cross. Veneration means "honor." The priest says, "This is the wood of the cross, on which hung the Savior of the world." The people respond: "Come, let us worship."

Then the priest and congregation approach in procession to offer a sign of reverence like genuflecting (to bend the knee, even lowering it to the floor), bowing or kissing the cross.

Last year at the Good Friday liturgy in my parish, I saw an elderly man slowly walk up the aisle, using a cane for support.

His face captured my attention. As he came to the cross, he rested one hand on it and then slowly bent down to kiss it. As he did, I noticed that his eyes started to tear up. This brought tears to my own eyes, as I witnessed the faith of this elderly man.

I could tell that this man really believes in Jesus. I wondered how the cross became so meaningful to him.

Have you venerated the cross at the Good Friday liturgy? How did you feel as you approached the cross? One way to prepare for this ritual is to take a few minutes to meditate on the cross. (See the box on the last page.)

Give Life to Others

Jesus’ resurrection is the most important event in the life of the Church. Jesus’ rising from the dead on Easter morning means that we can share eternal life with God. St. Paul wrote in his First Letter to the Corinthians that our faith would be "in vain" if Jesus did not rise from the dead. The resurrection is the happy ending of the paschal journey.

When the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea and were freed from slavery in Egypt, they sang and danced. They celebrated God’s saving power. Christians celebrate Easter with similar fanfare. We sing alleluia for the first time since the beginning of Lent.

Resurrection is a life-changing experience that gives new direction to your very existence. The apostle Simon Peter meets the resurrected Jesus by the Sea of Tiberias. Jesus asks Peter three times, "Do you love me?" Jesus may have been reminding Peter of the three times before the crucifixion that he had said he didn’t even know Jesus. Peter answers three times: "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."

Peter journeys from the sin and guilt of denying Jesus on Good Friday to forgiveness by the resurrected Jesus. But Peter’s paschal journey isn’t complete until Jesus challenges Peter to a new life mission. Three times Jesus says to him, "Feed my lambs."

The paschal journey isn’t complete for you if it is only about personal change. This journey always challenges you to serve others and make the world better. History reveals that Peter accepted this challenge, as have many others.

Peter spent the rest of his life proclaiming the Good News of the resurrected Jesus. His martyr’s death is the kind of paschal journey that strengthened other Christians to walk the same road.

This mystery can lead to service on more crooked paths than Peter’s. A young man named Jason was in my Confirmation small group as a ninth-grader some 20 years ago. Jason was dealing with a number of problems. At the weekend Confirmation retreat I gave a talk with the theme, "Jesus loves you unconditionally. Jesus loves you just the way you are!"

On Sunday night when we returned from the retreat, Jason stole a car and went for a joyride. He ended up in the juvenile court system.

When I saw Jason a few days later, I couldn’t help but ask, "Jason, you just got back from a religious weekend retreat. How could you steal a car right after this retreat?"

Jason said something I will never forget: "On the retreat you said that Jesus loves me just the way that I am. You said that Jesus loves me unconditionally. So what difference does it make if I stole a car?"

I’m not sure Jason learned a lot from that retreat, but I learned a lot from him! I learned that although God loves us unconditionally, a true experience of God’s love changes us. It changes us so that we want to be better people. It makes us to want to serve others and make the world better.

I ran into Jason a short time ago. I asked him what he was doing. To my surprise, he said he was working as a chemical dependency counselor for adolescents at the local hospital.

Somehow Jason had turned his life around. He decided that he could use his teenage problems and brokenness to help others.

Very Good News

Jason’s story shows the good news of the paschal journey. I believe that Jesus was mysteriously with Jason throughout his life. Jesus was with Jason in his difficult years (cross). Jesus was with Jason as he turned his life around (resurrection). And Jesus is with Jason as he serves teens today. Do you believe that Jesus is also with you on your journey?

Father Thomas Keating, a monk and leader of the centering prayer movement, says that each person’s spiritual journey is full of surprises. Jesus invites all of us to follow him. But where is Jesus going? Jesus is going to the cross and then finally into the loving arms of the Father.

 Father Keating says, "In that place we do not need anything else. Once we have given ourselves totally to God, all that God is and has is ours." Jesus’ promise to the good thief while he is on the cross is his promise to us: "Today you will be with me in paradise."

This is the good news of our faith. It’s a mystery worth a lifetime of exploring.

Jeffrey Kaster is the director of the Youth in Theology and Ministry program at St. John’s University School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota. He has worked in youth ministry for over 25 years.

Stephanie Brislin (18) and Colleen Butz (18) of Good Shepherd Parish in Montgomery, Ohio, were invited by Jen Crosby, parish youth minister, to read the early edition of this issue. As they did, they posed the questions now answered in these pages.