Chapter 11. The Gift of Science

The gifts which perfect the reason or intelligence are four — science and counsel, intellect and wisdom. But as the subject-matter of the reason is twofold— that is, truth and falsehood, right and wrong — the opera tions and judgments of the reason are either speculative or practical. And they are each perfected by two of these four gifts.

The practical reason is perfected by the gifts of science and of counsel.

The gift of science or knowledge is a supernatural habit which makes us prompt to know and to practise the will of God. We will call it science to distinguish it from all other knowledge, which is of many kinds.

The first outline of the likeness of God in us is the reason or intelligence; and the reason is the light which guides the will.

Therefore the conformity of the intelligence to the intelligence of God is the first condition of rectitude of will, or of morality. A perverted intelligence draws after it a perverted will, and therefore a false morality. And one error in principle is worse than ten errors in practice, because a false principle is continuous, and reproduces the same moral aberrations.

The mission of the Apostles was to elevate the intelligence of those in Israel who be lieved, and then to rectify the intelligence of the heathen. They had to encounter the Gnos tics of the East — who believed themselves to possess the science of God, apart from, and in opposition to, the revelation of Jesus Christ — and next the refined sensuality of the Greeks, and lastly the coarse idolatry of the Roman world. As it was then, so it is now. The special labour of the Church at this day is to rectify the intellectual aberrations of the last three hundred years. The chief characteristic of the nineteenth century is not so much heresy as intellectual self-sufficiency; and yet it is not the self-sufficiency of the first Gnostics, who believed themselves to have the knowledge of God, but the self-sufficiency of those who believe that they know that God is not to be known. Nevertheless, in teaching that nobody can know God, they profess to know not only that God does not exist: but also that there is no immutable right and wrong and no eternal moral law. If the legislator cannot be known, then certainly the law cannot. The whole moral world then falls back into chaos; the earth is without form and void, and darkness rests on the face of the deep. For this there is no cure but the sanctification and rectification of the intelligence by the presence of the Illuminator, who ' enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world.'1 Even they who afterwards, with their eyes open, return to darkness, once saw this light.

The first gift, then, which rectifies the intelligence is science. To understand it we must see what it is, what is its office or effects, and what are its objects.

1. First, as to what it is. It is a super- 1 S. John i. 8.

natural habit or permanent quality infused into the natural intelligence, elevating it and rendering it prompt to discern the will of God chiefly in practical and moral truth.2 It is therefore something more than prudence, natural or supernatural. It is also more than the light of faith, which is common to the just and the unjust; whereas the effects of science are in the just only. It includes both the dictates of prudence and the light of faith; and it is united with charity, so that it is a union of light with the love of truth. The want of this gift of science is the cause of all superstition and unbelief. Because men will not receive the truth in the love of it, there fore they deceive themselves, and mistake lies for truths. It is therefore an illumination of the reason with a spiritual discernment of the limits of truth and false hood, good and evil.

2. Its office or effects upon the intelligence are chiefly these: (1) f^rst of ail to 1 S. Thomse, Sum. Theol. 2. 2, q. 9.

impart an affinity between the intelligence and divine truth. The love of God is akin to the truth of God as warmth is to light. It gives to the reason an instinctive attraction to the truth, and an instinctive shrinking from falsehood. S. Paul says the * animal man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.' This spiritual discernment is intuitive, and they that have it sometimes can render no reason for their judgments, which are unerringly true, as they are afterwards proved to be. (2) Next science conforms the intelligence to the moral perfections of God; to His truthfulness, to His purity, to His justice. It makes men outspoken and straightforward. They cannot utter half truths, or palter with truth, or soften it. And (3) it gives a facility in understanding the will of God in His dealings with us. * What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter,'3 is the way in which God leads us, step by step, trusting Him in the twilight till the light of science • S. John xiii.

or spiritual discernment interprets His providence and our lot. Our Lord said, 'If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.'4 There is a light of discernment which comes from experience, and that experience comes by obedience to the gift of science. ' Light is risen to the just.'6

3. The objects of this gift are chiefly of a moral kind; that is, the law of God, and God as the Law-giver.

(1) It shows us the presence of God in all things, and all things in the presence of God. Moses saw a bush burning with the divine presence in Horeb. The gift of science sees the whole world burning with the presence of God. As we see all things in the light of the sun, and the light of the sun upon all things, so the whole creation teems with the divine presence, and reflects its glory. All things become a ladder which reaches from earth to heaven; a hierarchy « 0. John vii. 17. * Ps. xcvi. 21.

of creatures, from the lilies of the field to the splendour of the Seraphim, ascending to the throne of God: Dominus scientiarum tu es, — Thou art the Lord of all the manifold sciences of infinite intelligence. And in this light we understand what we owe to God, to ourselves, and to our neighbours. (2) Another object of science is the state of our own soul; the sins of commission and omission, the greater sinfulness in us of thoughts, words, and deeds, which in others would have less aggravation, because of our greater light; and therefore our special dangers and proneness to fall and instability of will.

(3) Lastly, it gives us a discernment to know how we can live in this world, but not of it. It discerns the fitness of time and place, of words and actions, in our dealings with the world, with our enemies, and with our friends. From it spring two safe guards: the one is circumspection, which shows us all that surrounds us; the other is caution, which governs us in what we say or do. The gift of science is the higher and more perfect operation of prudence with light, discernment, and facility in discerning what is practically right and wise to do, or, in a word, it is the perfection of Christian common sense.

It is well to know what hinders and what helps the operations of the gift of science.

1. The proper opposite of science or knowledge is folly — that is, the reckless, thoughtless, superficial, unreflecting, indeliberate way of acting, speaking, and living, which, though often free from grosser sins, is nevertheless rash and dangerous. It blunts the discernment of prudence, and darkens the moral sense. And this leads on to a practical, and sometimes to a speculative, unbelief. To such minds God is nowhere. No bush burns with His presence. All nature is dead. There is a moral and an intellectual blindness which hides the light of faith and of nature from such minds. They are in the exterior darkness before the time. In such men there is also a strange levity, a want of moral earnestness which nothing can rouse, a want of reverence which nothing can impress, a want of self- chastisement which nothing can awaken from its self-indnlgence. Such minds rush into the presence of God with their heads covered and shoes on their feet. The self-sufficiency of careless minds hinders the knowledge of truth. Thinking themselves to know, they will never learn.

2. The two things which help to unfold the gift of science are prayer and reading in a book which has three chapters.

Prayer, especially mental prayer, continually obtain fresh gifts of light and knowledge. It is God's gift, and if we ask for it, we shall surely receive it. The very art of speaking with God illuminates the mind.

The book in three chapters was never written on paper with ink; but it is open and legible to all. The first chapter is God and His perfections: the glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; the Ever-blessed Trinity; the love and worship of the Holy Ghost, by whom we are made the temple of God. The second chapter is Jesus: His life, His mind, and His Sacred Heart. The third chapter is ourself: our state in His sight, our relation to Him and His to us.

This is a science which never inflates the soul. It casts out all vainglory by the knowledge and vision of the glory of God. True science is always humble. It is a gift of God; and there is in the world an un broken line of those whom God has illuminated. False science puffs up with the confidence of the blind, and the contempt of those who see. Pray, then, for a healthy intellect, and fear all novelties, holding fast by the old traditions of the faith.

Give me, 0 Lord, spiritual discernment, that I may know Thy will, the way of holiness, the way of humility, Thy command ments, Thy precepts, Thy counsels, the law of liberty, and the way of perfection. Give me the science of Thyself, the science of Jesus, and the science of the Saints, that I may be able to comprehend what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to know the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all science.

Je«us, have mercy on me.

Holy Mary, pray for me.