Chapter 11. The Gift of Science

1 account all things to be but loss for the excellent Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. PHIL. iii. 8.

have already considered the three gifts of the Holy Ghost which perfect the will; namely, holy fear, piety, and fortitude. Holy fear is the beginning of the obedience of the children of God; piety is the filial affection of the sons of God; and fortitude makes the good soldiers of Jesus Christ. There yet remain the other four to be treated; and they are those which perfect the intellect or the reason. JSTow as the reason has a twofold operation — that is to say, either pure speculation or contemplation of abstract truth, or practical judgment respecting truth and falsehood, and right and wrong, as they bear upon our conduct — so these four gifts are distinguished into the two that perfect the speculative intellect — namely, the gift of intellect, or understanding, and the gift of wisdom; and the two which perfect the practical intellect — namely, the gift of science or knowledge and the gift of counsel. Inasmuch as the practical intellect is the most widely diffused among men — indeed, those who have little or no power of speculation in them have often a very 10* (236)

prompt and unerring guidance in the practical intellect —it is clear that this operation of the reason is the first and the most important to the greater part of men. We will, therefore, begin with the two gifts which perfect the practical intellect, and with that which:s the first in order; namely, the gift of science.

J^ow you all understand that the word " science." in Latin, is simply knowledge, though it has acquired a more technical and exact meaning. The word " knowledge," in our language, is so wide, so general, and so vague, that it does not suffice to convey the meaning of the gift of science. This gift of science is something between the exact and the wider sense. It is neither the vague knowledge which we commonly understand by the word, which may mean the knowing of any particular thing or of all things, neither does it mean technically and exactly a scientific knowledge, because many things are not capable of it.

I can readily understand that you will think this to be a matter both abstract and speculative, and therefore remote from practice. But I hope I shall be able to sho\v it is not remote from practice, but that it is highly and immediately practical, and that it closely touches the conscience and the responsibility of every one of us. Though I do not deny that a multitude of sins come troin passion, or from weakness, or from malice, which is the corruption of the will, nevertheless it is most certain that the greater part of the sins committed on the face of the earth come from the perversion of the intellect, which is the corruption and darkness of the reason; and that if we would heal our own souls, wo must begin by rectifying the false action and the

THE OK? OF SCIENCE. » perversion ot our intellect. Tliere is in every one of as a perversion of the reason, at least in some matters; in many it spreads widely over their intellect; in all it is to be found in some measure. The reason in man is like a lens through which we can discern minutely both truth and falsehood; but if there be a flaw in the lens, be it never so small, every object we see tli rough it will be in some measure distorted. So it is with the intellect. The reason or intellect in us is that part of the soul which is nearest to God. The Son of God became man by assuming a reasonable nature: when He took upon Himself a created nature He did not take it from the irrational creatures, He took it from the reasonable creation. And the order of the Incarnation was this: He took a human body by assuming a human soul, and He assumed a human soul by uniting His eternal intelligence with a created intelligence; so that the human reason is that part of our nature which is in the most immediate contact with God, and the reason which is in us is therefore in a special way the image of God. It is the light of God in the soul, whereby we are able to know God and ourselves, and to judge of truth and falsehood, and of right and wrong. The conscience is only the reason judging of right and wrong in matters of practice, as the speculative intellect is the reason judging of truth and falsehood in abstract truth. And BO long as the reason that is in us is conformed to the intelligence of God — that is, to the truth and to the will of God, which is the law of God — in that measure we are like to God, and walk in His light. Our nature is thereby rectified, and restored from the corruption and the distortion of the fall. But just in proportion

THE GIFT OP SCIEXCL.

as the reason that is in us is darkened or perverted, just in that measure we depart from God, just in that measure we become deformed and the image of God in us is obscured. Sin consists in a conscious transgression of the law with the eyes of our reason open. But the distinction between right and wrong is discerned by the intellect. Is not this a practical subject? Can there be anything more practical? Is it not the purging and the cleansing of the eye of the soul, and therefore of the conscience, which is the light of God in us 1

There is another reason why I have chosen this subject. If there be one thing in this nineteenth century of which men are proud, with an arrogant self-gratulation, it is the intellectual illumination of the days in which we live; and if there be anything which more than another is making havoc, like a devouring pestilence, in the whole Christian world, it is what we call intellectual pride. Let us, therefore, bring this intellectual progress to the test. Let us see what it is. Let us sen what men have to be proud of. This, I think, will re suit fiom what I am about to say.

Nov, there have been three periods of the world. A period before the revelation of Christianity was given during which the reason of man was left unaided, except by the lights of nature and the inscrutable communications of God, of which we cannot now stay to speak. What was the state of the world when the intellect and the reason of man was left to its own light? Road over the first chapter of Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans. I neeu not enter intc any detail. The utter and universal pe. version of the intellect of those who first multiplied jods, and then worshiped the creature more than the Creator, and the consequent moral corruption of the heart in those who, being intellectually perverted, could hardly discern right from wrong, is a picture BO horrible, that I have no will to dwell upon it. Secondly, the reason of man under the light of revelation has been rectified and conformed to ttie intelligence and to the will of God in this, that God has made both known to us by the declaration of His truth and of His law; and the Christian world, so far as it is worthy of the name, has been conformed to the truth and the law of God. The intellect of the Christian world has been thereby illuminated and sanctified. And when the intellect or reason of man is illuminated and sanctified, it carries the light of truth before the will in the path of obedience, and guides it in the way of conformity to God; as the Psalmist says: <l Thy word is a light unto my feet." Such was once the state of the Christian world, and such it is still, wherever faith reigns over the hearts of men. God sustains and preserves His Church by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the Fountain of all illumination and of all grace, in its conformity with His own divine intelligence. He guides the Catholic Church in the path of His eternal truth. That which we call infallibility is nothing but this: the Church cannot err from the path of revealed truth. And they who are fnithful to the Church are illuminated and sanctified, even in the midst of the darkness and the distortion of4bis nineteenth century.

What is the intellectual state of the men who have revolted from the Church, who have fallen away from it, who have set themselves up on the outside to be its critics, its judges, and its teachers? What is the cou dition of those nations that have broken away from the unity of the faith and of the Church of God? We see a country which, intoxicated with an excess of material power, is now daring, as a precursor to its own chastisement, to persecute the Church of Jesus Christ. A fatal extinction of supernatural light, the aberrations of false philosophy, the inflation of false science, the pride of unbelief, and a contemptuous scorn of those who believe, are preparing Germany for an overthrow or for suicide. The intellect of man in revolting from God falls from God, and, falling from God, loses its own perfection; it thereby darkens itself, and, having lost the light and the knowledge of God, loses also the knowledge of His law. Saint Paul says of such: " Their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." The intellectual results of this we see in the philosophies of the Absolute and the Unknowable, of independent morality, of universal skepticism, and the denial of all that is not subject to sense. And this is " culture; " and its professors and disciples are " men of culture," the lights of the world, who from their intellectual heights look down upon the nations, and pity men. To us simple mortals it seems as if these intellectual Titans were truncated men, walking about headless and unconscious of their mutilation. To us they seem to be intellectual pollards: stunted trees walking. They have abdicated the elevation and the dignity of the human reason in rejecting the knowledge of God, and in rejecting God they have rejected their own highest perfection. Such must be the conditkn of the world after it has departed from faith, and of the intellect and reason of man wheu the light which conforms it to God has departed. It is, f therefore, most practical and opportune that we should consider in what way the reason in man may be sanctified. If the intellect of man degrades itself when it falls into darkness, it rises again to its perfection when it is once more sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. And this is the office of the gift of science.

First, then, we will examine what this science is; next, what is its action upon the reason or the intelligence; what is its intrinsic nature; and then what the subject-matter of it is.¹

1. Now, what is it? There are in all men two lights; there is the light of nature and the light of faith. The light of nature, or what we call the natural light of reason; the light of faith, which is the supernatural light of the Holy Ghost. The light of nature is in every man by his birth as man. This is "the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." But the light of faith is given to those who are " born again of water and of the Holy Ghost." And yet the gift of science is not in all those who have been nationis pravse atque perversse laudabiliter conversari Tertius effectus est temporaliurn rerum administrate recta et efficax. Quar-tus est compendiosiorein efficacioremque proficiendi viam et sum-mam in cunctis agendis discretionem ostendere." — Dionysii Garth Opp. min. torn. i. tract, iii. art. xxv. p. 127.

born again. It was in every one of them when they were baptized; it is in every one of you now if you arc faithful. It is not in any one of you if you have fallen from your baptismal grace; unless, indeed, you have been restored to grace by absolution. Faith is a special superadded light, which takes up into itself the natural light of reason. The light of faith remains even in those who are in mortal sin. But the gift of science is something over and above both reason and faith, superadded by a special action of the Holy Ghost to those that are faithful to grace. When the light of nature has been trained and matured, we call it prudence. It is prudence which perfects the natural reason.

The gift of science is confined to those who still abide in communion with God and in the grace of sanctification; because it is not only light, it is also love; it is not only the light by which we know the truth, but it is also the love of truth. Therefore Saint Paul says of the Jews, and of other unbelievers who rejected the Gospel, that they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved; for that cause God suffered them " to believe a lie." This gift of science, then, is a certain love of truth, and with that love comes a facility to discern and to act upon truth. Science is based on the cardinal virtue of prudence, which perfects the reason, and is elevated by faith, which illuminates the reason. Science therefore includes prudence and faith, and superadds a special perfection. Such is precisely the description of this gift of science. It discerns a sweetness in the truth of God and in the law of God. This, then, is its nature.

2. Now what is the effect of this gift upon the reason of man? li gives to the intellect a certain quality a^cin to the truth itself. Just as light and heat are akin tc each other, and as heat and fire are also akin to each other, just as some materials have a ready affinity with others— some kindle, as the touchwood, some absolutely refuse the fire, as the cold stone — so the reason that has in it the light of faith and the love of the truth, by this gift of the Holy Ghost becomes, as it were, akin to the word of God. It gives a predisposition to see and love the truth. And, again, as when two flames are brought into the neighborhood of each other they draw to each other, and mingle and become one flame, so the reason or the intelligence, illuminated by the light of faith, and with an instinct of love, unites itself to the truths of revelation. It has a certain kindred nature whereby the reason is conformed to the mind. Now no man is more incapable of understanding the revelation of God than a man whose intellect is falsified by the habit 01 perverseness, such as insincerity and lying. Moral obliquities bring on a crookedness which hinders the faculty of discerning the rectitude of God's truth and the perfections of God's law. Again, a man that is sensual and impure blinds his moral sight. The law of God in its purity and unspotted sanctity is to such a man incomprehensible. A man who is unjust has something in him which rises up against the justice of God: he cannot understand the counsels of God because his moral nature is depraved, and his moral nature is depraved because his intellect has a flaw in the lens. But when the reason is conformed to the light and the law of God, then he can discern the truth of God with a facility which no sensual man can possess. Saint Paul says,

"All tilings are clean to the clean, but to them chat are defiled, and to unbelievers, nothing is clean; but both their mind and' their conscience are defiled."*

3. Thirdly, what is the subject-matter of science? I cannot better express it than by saying that the main object of the practical intellect is the Divine law and the Divine Law-giver. But these words contain much. To know the Divine Law-giver is to know God in His perfections; to know the Divine law is to know the will and the mind of God. And they who have this light in them have a discernment that reaches over all truth natural and revealed; as, for example, let me take it in the articles of our faith. The theologians of the Church so treat the articles of our baptismal Creed as to expand them into volumes of theology. That is a speculative action. But the little child that hears me now repeats this baptismal Creed and understands the articles contained in it better than the " men of culture" who have rejected both the Law-giver and the law. Our Divine Lord said: " I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast concealed these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto little ones: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Now let me take another example. The " men of culture " of this day tell us that the existence of the physical world does not prove the existence of a Creator; that is to say, that the argument has no force of conviction for them. By whubO fault? When a blind man looks me in the face and says, " I cannot see you," am I therefore not there? And yet the " men of culture " of these times can look upon *he * Titus i. 18.

face of the visible world, in which the creatures of God are like the ladder in the patriarch's vision. The Divine Presence was at the head of it, and the angels ascended ar d descended upon it. So is it with the creation and its works. They are a scale of ascent whereby we pass from the inorganic to the organic, from the or« gaiiic to the animate, from the animate to the rational, and from the rational to the spiritual; ascending by a continuous and unbroken chain whereby we reach to the Cause of all. The existence of the world demands the existence of a Maker: for " every house is built by some man, but He that created all things is God."* The physical sciences are the only sciences that men of culture will recognize as worthy of the name. But what are they? They are like the foundation-stones of an arch, upon which stone upon stone is laid; the piers rise until the arch begins to spring; and the arch is not perfected in the beauty of its form and the solidity of its strength until the keystone is let in to tie it all together. What is the keystone of all knowledge? It is theology, the science of God. When the natural sci ences, physical and moral, are read in the light of God, they form one perfect whole. All is order and symmetry, and beauty and light. Such is the house that Wisdom has built for herself. By this gift of science, all things are seen in the light of God, and God is seen in all things. By one act of the reason all is seen at once, just as the visible world is seen in the light of the sun, and the light of the sun is seen in everything. WTierettoever the eye falls there is still the sun. Such is the i abject-matter of the gift of science. * Heb. iii 4

4. Bnt once more. This intellectual I'ght shows ua not only what things we ought to believe, but what things we ought to do. They that have this light in them know how to interpret the commandments of God, not only in the letter, but in the spirit — not only in the outward circumstances, which many seeiu +o confuse with the law itself, but in the substance and intent. The Pharisees, for lack of this gift, gave tithes of mint, anise, and cummin, and neglected the greater things of the law. It is precisely this discernment in moral and spiritual things which results from the gift of science. By it we discern between commandments and counsels, and between the way of obedience and the way of perfection. It is science that teaches us our relation to God and our relation to our neighbor. It is this that explains to us the meaning of the words: " Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." Have you ever reflected upon these words? How are you to love your neighbor as yourselves? You are to love yourselves, then? But self-love is the root of all sin; and yet there is a rational self-love which is a duty towards God. The suicide does not know the value of his own soul. He does not love himself; and he casts his life back in the face of his Maker, because he does not believe either in hie Maker, or in his own eternity, or in his own responsibility. Therefore a rational love of self is our first duty next after the love of God; and the rational love of our neighbor springs from it. Now perhaps, if you will ponder on this, you will have to acknowledge that you have not as yet ascertained what is that rational love of yourselves. No man that neglects the Holy Sacraments can really know the value of his own soul. He therefore cannot have a rational love of himself. JN o raan who treats the subject of religion with levity can have a rational love of himself. If he had he would not so lightly offend God.

Once more. What is it that teaches us to know our own soul — to discern the conscious acts, which are the inward facts, of our spiritual being? What is it that enables us to know our own sins of commission as they really are in the sight of God? It is this gift of knowledge turned in upon ourselves. How do we know our sins of omission but by knowing the law and the Lawgiver? And how do we come to know our temptations — those that are universal to all men, and those that are special to our peculiar character — but by the spiritual discernment of this gift of knowledge? And, onc< more, how do we know the value of the graces that ar« round aboi.t us but by this same gift? How do we come to kiov these graces as the means to our fina? end, which is God? How do we come to know how precious and how vital they are to us? The greatei part of men live in the midst of the graces 01 God with out change, and therefore become insensible. They lose their liberty to creatures; they sell their independence, and perhaps lose their souls, for a momentary success, for the flattery of the world, for the passing sound of money. Remember what the Apostle says: " Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him "* And again he says: " They that will become rich tall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which * 1 S. John ii. 15.

drown men into destruction and perdition; for the desire of money is the root of all evils, which some ccToting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows."* Such men are living for little else than to be rich. In their thoughts the world is first, and God is second. Even good people justify a worldly life by saying that they must lay up for the future. They must create an inheritance for their children: they must raise them in the world. Such people are lacking in the light of discernment, which tells the real worth of creatures. For of what worth are all the creatures of this world? In themselves they are worth nothing. But as means to the end for which we came into the world, which is a holy death, they are of great worth. Even the best and the purest, and the most perfect of creatures will not stand these three following tests. Is there a creature of God, however pure and perfect it may be, that is commensurate with the needs of the human soul? Every created thing is too small, and the human soul is too large to be filled or satisfied. ISText, is there any creature, however perfect in itself, that can give perfection to our nature? The Creator alone can make us perf ect. Lastly, if any creature were in itself commensurate, and had in itself the power to make perfect our nature, would it be eternal? but nothing save that which is eternal can satisfy the soul in man.!Now this discernment shows us why it is that so great a multitude of even good Christians are perpetually making gross mistakes; and even saints have been deceived by false judgments, and have been led astray, and, it may be for a long time, kept in bond * 1 S. Tim. vi. 9, 10.

age until this gift of science has rectified their discern-o o ment, and set them free.

Let us here snm up what is the nature of this gift It is a special grace of the Holy Ghost superadded to the light of faith, but given only to those who live faithfully in a state of grace, enabling them with a greater facility to discern the truth and the law of God — or, to put it in one word, it is Christian common sense. Christian common sense means the prudence of the light of nature ripened into supernatural prudence, made perfect and elevated by the light of the Holy Ghost.

And now I have only two questions to ask.

1. Why is it that so many people manifest no spark of this light? what is it that destroys this gift which they have in them by Baptism? A mortal sin extinguishes it. By one mortal sin sanctifying grace and the love of God are lost; and with the love of God are lost this gift and all the seven gifts. But I trust we are not in that perilous and miserable state. And yet in us, too, this Christian common sense — this light of the knowledge of our duty to God, and to our neighbor, and to ourselves — may be very faint and low. And what is it that clouds it? The venial sins that we commit so easily — sins of worldliness, sins of self-indulgence, sins of temper, sins of jealousy, sins of pride, sins of vain-dory, sins of sloth, and the like; wherever there is any in, but above all, wherever there is any tampering with unbelief, wherever there is any parleying with the spirit of doubt, wherever the intellect which is in you is exposed by your own free will to the perversions of falsehood In this nineteenth century they assail us on every side. We breathe an atmosphere charged with uncertainty and doubt. The literature which lies upou our tables — the books we take up every day of our lives — are replete with denials of the law.and of the Law-giver. Curiosity and recklessness fascinate thousands to their fall. The want or the loss of the gift of science, which as a sensitive instinct turns away from error as you would turn away from evil, causes even good minds to go astray. Sometimes they lose the delicate perception of what is true and the delicate horror of what is false. Take care, then, of what books you read, of what friends you make, of what conversations you indulge in, of everything that can cloud the light and discernment of faith that is within you. And, once more — I grieve to say — in characters that are pure, in characters that are not without piety, there is to be found often a vein of levity — a levity which hinders the appreciation of the true value of things. The man that found the pearl of great price knew its value: he could appreciate it. He sold all for it with a resolute will. But there are some who live so carelessly that they cannot tell a true pearl from a counterfeit — they cannot tell gold from glittering tinsel. Light winds are shallow: what is real, severe, and true passes them unperceived. From levity comes also irreverence — a light and jesting spiiit which is seldom grave, even about religious truth. This often opens the door to skeptical doubt. There are some among us who, if they had been upon the mountain, in the presence of the burning bush, would have drawn near to it with their heads covered and their shoes upon their feet. If they had seen the miracle of the mulplication of the loaves in the wilderness, they would have carried away some of the fragments that remained to subject them to chemical analysis. This is an odious spirit wafted from the world, and making havoc even among those that know better — laying waste many a heart and many a home.

2. My other question is this: How is this gift, if it be in us, to be ripened and perfected? First, and above all, by prayer. Praying is speaking with God, speaking face to face with the Giver of all good gifts. " Ask, and you shall receive." " If any man shall ask the Father anything in My name, it shall be given him." " If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth liberally."² When I say prayer, I do not mean the reading of prayers out of your book. Yocal prayer is a good thing, and enough for those that can do nothing else. But when I say prayer, I mean the use of your intellect, and of your heart, and of your will in mental prayer, by which you ascend to God and unite yourselves with Him. And the other means is diligent and accurate study. And by study I do not mean the study of metaphysics, or the study of history, or the study even of theology — I do not mean the study of a multitude of books. I will only bid you to study three books, and they will last your life. The first book is God. Look up into the face of God. Live in the light of His presence. Walk to and fro in your daily life amidst the perfections of God, of His justice, of His sanctity, of His purity, of His truth, of His mercy, of His beauty, until, by walking in the midst of that light, you receive some of its brightness and read all things by its clearness. The next book is Jesus Himself

This is what St. Paul meant when he said: u ^ account all things to be loss for the excellent kn wledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." He meant that he set before himself the life of his Master, that he read beneath the outward life and entered into the mind of Jesus Christ, that he made the Sacred Heart of Jesus to be the manual of his contemplation. And the third and last book is your own self. When you have the light of God and the vision of the perfections of Jesus Christ in your intellect, then look into your own hearts. See what is your own state, and shape, and color in the sight of God. The study of these three books will light up in you a threefold science: the science of God, the science of Jesus, and the science of self-knowledge. Saint Paul says there is a " science that puffeth up." It is the intellect of man without God. All its operations are selfish, and its fruit is vain-glory. There never was a century from the beginning when this intellectual pride and the puffing-up of false science were more conspicuous than in this. Let us take an example. The old world, before the reason of man came under the dominion of revelation, was so full of the thought of God, so penetrated with the consciousness of God's presence, that it not only believed in one supreme God, but it multiplied on every side the presence of divine persons, and thereby made to itself a multitude of gods. It was so profoundly impressed by this theism, that so far from refusing to believe in the existence of God, it invested everything on every side with divine personalities. What does the nineteenth century d3? It ha? produced the greatest intellectual monster which the world has ever seen- -an atheist, a man who deniei the existence of God. And whyt does Lt3 ieny His existence? Because he has no perception of purity, of sanctity, of justice, of mercy, of truth — that is, of the moral perfections which constitute the character of the law as the transcript of the Law-giver. But this is too large a subject, and I must make an end — all that I have said may be put in one word.

There is a science of God, and it is the gift of God. Do not say " this science of God is too hard for me." Ask for it, and it shall be given to you. The most perfect act of the human reason, its highest development, its ripest maturity, is to believe in a Divine Teacher. They that submit themselves to the Catholic Church, because they believe it to be infallible by the perpetual presence and assistance of the Holy Ghost, therein put forth the highest act of the human reason. By submit-ting themselves to a Teacher that is divine, they recognize the dependence of the finite on the infinite intellect. Next, the noblest act of the human heart is to give that knowledge of God to those who have been robbed of it, to those who have been born in the twilight, as the multitudes of our land have been. " Freely you have received, freely give." Nothing can be compared to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Give it freely. Spread abroad this knowledge by word and deed; spread it right and left. Break the Bread you have received to all who stand in need of it. u Cast your bread upon the water, and you shall find it after many days."* " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening hold not thy hand, for though tnowc^t not which shall prosper."! Foil shall find it in the * Eccles. xi. 1. f Ik & great harvest-home upon the eternal hills. that are learned [that is, with the science of God and of salvation] shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that have instructed many unto justice as the stars to all eternity."*

Footnotes

1. " Donum scientiae lumen est rationis ostendens atque erudiens quid de rebus creatis seutire oportet secundum divinae legis seu fidei documenta. Et iste est primus ejus intimusque effectus, rationem taliter informare: potissinie tamen docet hominem seipsum vera-citer considerare, prsesertim per operationem ad virtutes ac vitia, an scilicet bonus an pravus existat, and conscientia sibi bonum testimonium prabeat, an opus Dei negligenter persolvat. Secundua iloni hujus effectus est. quod facil abstinere a mails, id est, in niedio ↩

2. S. Jamee i. 5. 11 ↩