|
1. I cannot say, my dearest son Laurence, how much
your learning pleases me, and how much I desire that
you should be wise--though not one of those of whom
it is said: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputant of this world? Hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1) Rather,
you should be one of those of whom it is written,
"The multitude of the wise is the health of the
world" (2); and also you should be the kind of man
the apostle wishes those men to be to whom he
said,(3) "I would have you be wise in goodness and
simple in evil."(4) 2. Human wisdom consists in
piety. This you have in the book of the saintly Job,
for there he writes that Wisdom herself said to man,
"Behold, piety is wisdom." (5) If, then, you ask what
kind of piety she was speaking of, you will find it
more distinctly designated by the Greek term
qeosebeia, literally, "the service of God." The Greek
has still another word for "piety," ensebeia, which
also signifies "proper service." This too refers
chiefly to the service of God. But no term is better
than qeosebeia, which clearly expresses the idea of
the man's service of God as the source of human
wisdom.
When you ask me to be brief, you do not expect me
to speak of great issues in a few sentences, do you?
Is not this rather what you desire: a brief summary
or a short treatise on the proper mode of worshipping
[serving] God?
3. If I should answer, "God should be worshipped
in faith, hope, love," you would doubtless reply that
this was shorter than you wished, and might then beg
for a brief explication of what each of these three
means: What should be believed, what should be hoped
for, and what should be loved? If I should answer
these questions, you would then have everything you
asked for in your letter. If you have kept a copy of
it, you can easily refer to it. If not, recall your
questions as I discuss them.
4. It is your desire, as you wrote, to have from
me a book, a sort of enchiridion (6), as it might be
called--something to have "at hand"--that deals with
your questions. What is to be sought after above all
else? What, in view of the divers heresies, is to be
avoided above all else? How far does reason support
religion; or what happens to reason when the issues
involved concern faith alone; what is the beginning
and end of our endeavor? What is the most
comprehensive of all explanations? What is the
certain and distinctive foundation of the catholic
faith?
You would have the answers to all these questions
if you really understood what a man should believe,
what he should hope for, and what he ought to love.
For these are the chief things--indeed, the only
things--to seek for in religion. He who turns away
from them is either a complete stranger to the name
of Christ or else he is a heretic. Things that arise
in sensory experience, or that are analyzed by the
intellect, may be demonstrated by the reason. But in
matters that pass beyond the scope of the physical
senses, which we have not settled by our own
understanding, and cannot--here we must believe,
without hesitation, the witness of those men by whom
the Scriptures (rightly called divine) were composed,
men who were divinely aided in their senses and their
minds to see and even to foresee the things about
which they testify.
5. But, as this faith, which works by love, begins
to penetrate the soul, it tends, through the vital
power of goodness, to change into sight, so that the
holy and perfect in heart catch glimpses of that
ineffable beauty whose full vision is our highest
happiness. Here, then, surely, is the answer to your
question about the beginning and the end of our
endeavor. We begin in faith, we are perfected in
sight. This likewise is the most comprehensive of all
explanations.
As for the certain and distinctive foundation of
the catholic faith, it is Christ. "For other
foundation," said the apostle, "can no man lay save
that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus." Nor
should it be denied that this is the distinctive
basis of the catholic faith, just because it appears
that it is common to us and to certain heretics as
well. For if we think carefully about the meaning of
Christ, we shall see that among some of the heretics
who wish to be called Christians, the name of Christ
is held in honor, but the reality itself is not among
them. To make all this plain would take too
long--because we would then have to review all the
heresies that have been, the ones that now exist, and
those which could exist under the label "Christian,"
and we would have to show that what we have said of
all is true of each of them. Such a discussion would
take so many volumes as to make it seem endless.
6. You have asked for an enchiridion, something
you could carry around, not just baggage for your
bookshelf. Therefore we may return to these three
ways in which, as we said, God should be served:
faith, hope, love. It is easy to say what one ought
to believe, what to hope for, and what to love. But
to defend our doctrines against the calumnies of
those who think differently is a more difficult and
detailed task.
If one is to have this wisdom, it is not enough
just to put an enchiridion in the hand. It is also
necessary that a great zeal be kindled in the heart.
|