What's in a Mystery?

Since I've started saying the Rosary I have had some trouble really wrapping my mind around each mystery. Perhaps I've gotten in over my head. My familiarity with the gospels is not what it should be. I know most of the stories, but I have never attempted to understand the truth of them until now. So the Rosary is my introduction.

This weekend I went to the basilica book store and picked up The Rosary: Chain of Hope by Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R. Following the theme of hope, Fr. G briefly explains each mystery and its importance to the modern world. It's not densely theological, though it does include the full Apostolic Letter from JPII introducing the Luminous mysteries. I especially enjoy Fr. G's little digs at the modern world. When discussing the Wedding at Cana he writes:

Modern skepticism, of course, has trouble with this (water into wine), but what an unhappy thing modern skepticism is, anyway. The skeptics would not have drunk wine even if they had been there. Poor things.

This made me chuckle, and really helped me to make the mystery a reality. How much of our modern world denies the supernatural completely. Our scientific advances have made us arrogant. We think we can do anything, and that we understand everything, when so much of the world is a complete mystery. It brought to mind a friend of mine with a rare illness. It is hard to diagnose and challenging to treat. He and his doctors are very frustrated by the lack of confirmable research. He does not seem to fit any of the models for how this disease works. When we are presented with anything that scratches the surface of our own knowledge we are confronted with a gulf of mystery. We want to deny the existence of mystery in our world. We want to be in control. So how can I help my friend? I cannot discover a cure. All I can do is pray for the intervention of the Lord. Pray for the water to become wine.