“We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers”.  Abraham Joshua Heschel I am currently rereading “The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russell for a book club. It is a powerful story of a Jesuit mission, consisting of four Jesuits and four civilians, a wonderfully diverse crew of misfits, agnostics and believers, who are the first visitors to the planet Rakhat. With tremendous insight into human nature, the author produces a startling portrait of an alien culture, and the disastrous results of earth’s cultural understandings when meeting an alien world. Shortly after arrival, and before any contact with the planet’s residents, one of the Jesuits dies unexpectedly in his sleep. The following is part of the service for the burial of the dead priest, spoken by the priest celebrant. “The voyage was not without reward for Alan…but we are left with Anne’s question. Why would God bring him all this way only to die now? …The Jewish sages tell us that the whole of the Torah, the entirety of the first five books of the Bible, is the name of God. With such a name, they ask, how much more is God?  The Fathers of the Church tell us that God is Mystery and unknowable.  God himself, in scripture, tells, ‘My ways…….