For example, the Trinity is fundamentally incomprehensible. All we know is "unless we say THIS" or "if we permit ourselves to say THAT" we will miss the mystery and say something not only not true but confusing.
I don't think Thomas explains the Eucharist, I think he sets out the ground rules and, maybe more importantly, says what we DON'T say it is."
If the objecting child referred to downstream is old enough, we say,"Yes, it tastes exactly like wine (only sweeter - we also tend to go with sweeter wines), but what it tastes like is not what it is, any more than being stabbed by a needle is an attack, when it's a vaccination. It FEELS like torture. It isn't."
Then you smack him a good one. No. Wait.
"Then you smack him a good one. No. Wait."
I thought, given the delicate sensibilities of so many here on FR, I'd leave out the part about yiayia giving the kid a good beating with a wooden spoon, but hey, there's the truth of matter! :)
I'm going to agree with you on the 'ground rules' part. We have to use words in some parts of teaching. And theology in large measure is reason applied to spirituality.
However, the way to know mysteries more fully is not with words or with the reasoning mind.
I think we have often lost this truth, and try to 'explain' the mystery using the wrong tools.
As Kosta, I believe it was, reminded us:
"You ask what is the procession of the Holy Spirit? Do you tell me first what is the unbegottenness of the Father, and I will then explain to you the physiology of the generation of the Son, and the procession of the Spirit, and we shall both of us be stricken with madness for prying into the mystery of God."
St. Gregory the Theologian