I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows -- was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.
2 Corinthians 12:2-4
St. Paul, author of the rather obscure passage above, was no dummy. Educated at the feet of Gamaliel, he had his academic credentials to be sure. And he could certainly write in soaring fashion. Consider his great chapter on love in his first letter to the Corinthians. (See 1 Cor. 13.)
But, great as we he was, there was a limit to his knowledge. Twice in today's passage he confesses that he does not know. Make such bold assertions today, and he would be written off as something of an ignorant, insufferable bore.
But there is a question we must ask: Are we content to not know everything? The age of the enlightenment and the scientific and technological revolutions have given us copious amounts of knowledge. Yet, for all our intelligence, how much do we really know? The twentieth century gave us what has been called the "greatest generation" and unparalleled advancements. But it also the bloodiest hundred years on record.
When confronted with the notion that knowledge is limitless, a smidge of skepticism joined to faith is not a bad thing.
PD
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