Mysterious Quarks

A Reflection on this Friday’s Gospel (Mark 4:26-34) 31 January 2025

In the Gospel today the Lord tells us something very important with regard to “Kingdom faith.” Jesus tells us,

“This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit ...” (Mark 4:26–28 NABRE)

The Farmer does not know how the seed and land yields fruit; he simply knows that it does, and that is enough. For him, the life in the seed is a mystery, and that is OK.

We live in a world that is uncomfortable with mystery. We are like children who incessantly demand; “Why!” and “How!” We insist on answers! Unlike a modern mystery novel or movie that has a clear, “who done it,” and “how they don it;” a theological mystery has no real solution. It is impenetrable without divine revelation.

This is the case for so many realities. For example, we can explain eternity but can never explain how eternity could possibly operate. Just answer the question; what came before time? For time has a definite start and stop. Or answer the child’s question; “when was God born?” Our answer is that He always was, is, and will be. He is outside of time. How? For us, this is a theological mystery.

The notion of theological mystery properly so called implies that the mysterious truth is incapable of being discovered by human reason, and that, even after it is revealed, reason cannot prove its existence … A mystery is therefore subjectively above reason and objectively above nature. (Wilhelm and Thomas 9)

A theological mystery is impenetrable. God operates outside of our comprehension. That does not mean that we can know nothing about God. But because God is the creator, no creature can ever come to fully understand or describe God in a manner that is wholly adequate, all-encompassing. Job rightly says of God; we can only glimpse “the outlines of His ways,” like “a whisper” we hear of Him. (Job 26:14 NABRE)

The fact that God is incomprehensible is not something that should make us uncomfortable. Instead that mystery should give us confidence and engender hope. The farmer “knows not how.” He trusts in God’s presence, in His mysterious relentless love, and in His providence. God has a beautiful plan! Just look at creation.

One of my cousins is a university physicist. Though I believe he enjoys teaching; research is his passion, in particular, the research of “quarks.” Once, over a Thanksgiving Day meal, He explained all that he knew about quarks. No easy task!

For the uninitiated, to include myself, He explained that quarks, along with gluons, make-up matter. Everything you see and touch is made from an incomprehensible number of protons and neutrons. These atoms are composed of quarks. Each quark has a corresponding anti-quark which is equal in mass yet opposite in all other aspects. Quarks are so small that scientists cannot split them.

In pursuit of the knowledge of quarks, my cousin spent many of his summers in the Antarctic, where they are best detected. I asked my cousin why the study of quarks was so important. A Catholic, he told me that when he looks at quarks, he sees the most elemental building blocks of creation, to include our own bodies. In studying quarks, he sees God’s handiwork and is amazed. Like Job, my cousin hears a whisper and gains a glimpse of God.

Like the farmer in Mark’s Gospel, my cousin saw in creation the mystery that is God and in these smallest of elements, found a tremendous hope. He does not need to know how. For my cousin, God in each quark demonstrates His deep care and love for the tiniest details of life. How can we ever be discouraged? God has us in the palm of His loving hand. How could we ever feel abandoned? God is all around us and in us. If God has created the miniscule quark, the thought of the details of heaven opened my cousin’s heart with profound joy in the expectation of heaven.

Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. John Bosco. St. John was a teacher and father to orphaned youth. He founded two religious congregations which continue that work. He is often quoted as saying; “Walk with your feet on earth, but in your heart be in heaven.” (YOUCAT 52) The farmer who scatters the seed must know the business of farming; over this God gives us dominion. In this we have a great responsibility to know His creation, our feet on the earth. However, in our hearts we always trust that God is in control. God is mystery, incomprehensible. In God’s mysterious unfathomable love, He “gets us,” and loves us, down to every tiny quark.

We “know not how” and that is OK.

Endnotes:

Schönborn, Christoph, ed. YOUCAT English: Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church. Trans. Michael J. Miller. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011. Print.

Wilhelm, Joseph, and Thomas B. Scannell. A Manual of Catholic Theology: Based on Scheeben’s “Dogmatik.” Fourth Edition, Revised. I. London; New York; Cincinnati; Chicago: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd.; Benziger Bros., 1909. Print.